Harmonization of the Ukrainian legislation with the EU law

The seminar titled “EU Regulatory Approximation – Challenges and Solutions” was held on 7 February 2019 to exchange valuable knowledge under support of foreign partners. The event was organized by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia and Deloitte Ukraine.

With EU-Ukraine Association Agreement fully in force since December 2017, free trade, removal of barriers and regulatory approximation gained additional momentum that led to a positive development in trade and reform progress. For Ukraine, which has chosen the path of European integration, legal harmonization experience of Croatia, one of the last states that has become a full EU member, is extremely important.

“Croatia views Ukraine as a powerful partner, therefore it will provide its support in the difficult transition period and share its EU association experience,” said Iva Jantolek, First Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia.

Alexander Cherinko, Partner, Head of Tax & Legal at Deloitte Ukraine stressed on the importance, scale and complexity of the task to harmonize the Ukrainian legislation with the EU law. He also noted that the latest report of the European Parliament on the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement specifically focuses on the urgent need of further technical, expert and financial assistance aimed at developing the potential of the Verkhovna Rada and key ministries for the purpose of implementation.

“Under the Association Agreement, Ukraine is to incorporate about 350 EU directives and rules into the national legislation within seven years from the effective date of the Agreement. These large scale changes will affect almost the entire regulatory framework and require joint efforts by the state, our western partners, and the expert community,” said Dmytro Pavlenko, Director at Deloitte Tax & Legal, lawyer, Legal Services Lead.

Kristijan Turkalj, State Secretary, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Croatia talked in detail about the rule-making procedures in Croatia: the stages and specifics of drafting, coordinating and adopting regulations. Mr. Turkalj stressed that negotiations and continuous communication are an integral part of the integration process. Establishment of direct working relations between the responsible stakeholders and experts from state authorities is key to the stimulation and optimization of rule-making procedures.

The experts paid considerable attention to the translation of regulatory documents and technical solutions in this sphere. Marija Kaluder, Head of Sector for EU Documents, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia noted that it is not enough to use terminology to create a clear text. It is necessary to conduct in-depth expert analysis and coordinate work of specialists from various fields, including linguists. Marija outlined five steps needed for a successful translation: direct translation using the developed base of terminology, detailed review, expert review, legalization and final verification.

The topic dedicated to the translation of regulatory documents was continued by Hans Verheggen, Partner, Technology, Deloitte Belgium. He demonstrated the work of RegXplorer Tool used for the processing of regulatory documents and scientific information, which applies advanced text analysis methods to global and state-level regulations to identify duplicates, detect inconsistencies, relatedness of the documents, and terms.

The experts discussed legislative harmonization in the energy sector, namely through the example of our southern partner – Turkey. As the EU candidate country, Turkey has made a significant step in transforming its energy sector. “Transparency and public awareness are crucial on the road to change,” said Elif Dusmez Tek, Partner at Deloitte Turkey. Ms. Elif also shared practical cases of Deloitte Turkey in the implementation of project to support harmonization of Turkish legislation in the energy sector.

Greg Fishman, Director at Deloitte Ukraine summed up discussion of the experts, noting that the experience shared by our partners is convincing and essential for Ukraine in harmonizing and improving legal system in order to become the transformed European state.