On 4 May Government of Ukraine and the European Union signed an Agreement on the participation of Ukraine in the Union Programme “Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME) 2014-2020”. On behalf of Ukraine, the Agreement was signed by the Representative of Ukraine to the EU Mr. Mykola Tochytskyi on behalf of the EU – by Director-General in charge of Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Ms. Lowri Evans.

The EU COSME Programme supports projects in the area of business internationalization, clustering, tourism, entrepreneurial experience exchanges, protection of intellectual property rights (full list of relevant projects as well as participation guidelines can be found at the Programme’s web-page).

After the ratification of the Agreement by the Ukrainian Parliament, stakeholders from Ukraine, namely business support organizations, clusters, public bodies and companies will be eligible to participate in the majority of COSME projects (excluding ‘financial instrument’).

An efficient implementation of the Programme’s projects in Ukraine will promote opportunities of the Ukraine – EU Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area among Ukrainian and European businesses, advertise Ukraine’s economic potential as well as bring to Ukraine best European practices of support to SMEs.