EITI as an ‘entry point’ for in-depth reforms in Ukraine

29 June 2018 – The EITI Board today decided that Ukraine has made meaningful progress in implementing the EITI Standard. In making its decision, the Board highlighted how the Government of Ukraine and the Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) have made progress “in strengthening the governance of the extractive industries by providing timely and publicly accessible information on the revenues from mining, oil and gas, including from transportation and creating a platform for public debate and informing policy-making”. The Board also welcomed the extension of EITI implementation to a larger group of companies and to new sectors including coal, iron, manganese, titanium, clay mining and hydrocarbons transportation.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, Chair of the EITI, said:

“I am pleased to see how EITI implementation in Ukraine helped drive broader economic, financial and institutional reforms. I urge the government and the Multi-Stakeholder Group to implement the recommendations from Validation and to move towards systematic disclosures of EITI data through government and company systems”.

Natalya Boyko, Deputy Minister of Energy and Coal Industry and MSG Chair, said:

“The EITI has shed light on Ukraine's extractive sector for the first time. EITI implementation has set up a transparency trend in the extractives and continued to inform government and companies on how systematic disclosures are beneficial to all stakeholders. The progress we have made is encouraging, but we need to go further, Ukraine is already disclosing some information online. Support from international partners will be essential in getting all extractives data systematically disclosed online - so that it can be used by stakeholders to better understand and manage the growing Ukrainian extractive sector”.

The EITI Board commended Ukraine for the strong engagement of civil society, which played a central role in driving reforms and improving accountability in the government’s management of the extractive industries. The EITI has also provided a mechanism for civil society to raise concerns with government and industry stakeholders

Olena Pavlenko, President of Dixi Group and Deputy MSG Chair, highlighted: 

"The EITI has become an ‘entry point’ for in-depth reforms in the energy sector of Ukraine. The EITI reports provide a systematic assessment of extractive industries; the multi-stakeholder dialogue helps the various parties to hear each other and to work together to achieve common goals; and the knowledge exchange with other EITI countries contributes to implementation of the best practices in the country. We very much hope, that the progress Ukraine has made, implementing the EITI, will be an additional impetus for the rapid reforms of extractive industries”.

The EITI Board acknowledged Ukraine’s efforts to go beyond the EITI requirements on beneficial ownership transparency, distribution of revenues, revenue management and expenditures, social expenditures and public debate. The Board also made a series of recommendations to strengthen governance.  Firstly, to discuss options for contract transparency and project-level reporting.  Secondly, to improve the transparency of state-owned enterprises, as well as data reliability. The Board welcomes the Government’s commitment to building the EITI implementation into Ukraine’s legislation and supports the MSG’s efforts to move towards systematic disclosures of EITI data.

The Board has determined that Ukraine will have 18 months, i.e. until 29 December 2019, before a second Validation to address its corrective actions.

Scorecard

Notes

• Validation is the EITI’s independent evaluation mechanism. It assesses countries against progress made in meeting the 2016 Standard.
• See here for a full explanation of the various levels of progress under the EITI Standard.
• See the interactive scorecard for Ukraine here.
• The Board's decision in full: 2018-37/BM-40/BP-40-6-G
• The documentation of Ukraine's Validation can be found here.
• For further information about the EITI in Ukraine, please visit the country page on the EITI website.