Ambassador Ian Boag to open the first Euro Info Correspondence Centre in Ukraine

October 31, 2005.

    Ambassador Ian Boag will open the Euro Info Correspondence Centre (EICC) in Ukraine at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 1 November 2005. The centre will be part of a network of nearly 300 centres in the EU, Norway, Iceland, and in the candidate countries managed by the European Commission’s Directorate General Enterprise and Industry. The goal of this network is to provide small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with information and assistance services on all EU issues, including on regulations of the EU’s Single Market, and to facilitate contacts with EU Trade Partners.
    On the eve of the opening Ambassador Boag stressed: “Since the Enlargement of the European Union we have seen a tremendous growth in the demand for information from Ukrainian companies about trade opportunities with the EU. Therefore, to show practical support to the Ukrainian business community, the European Commission has encouraged the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to set up a Euro Info Correspondence Centre for Ukraine. This is the first such centre in the CIS and it will ! assist U krainian companies with getting in line with EU standards and norms. EICCs play a key role in the relationship between SMEs, the EU and third countries. They distribute EU information and reply to general, legal, administrative and statistical questions about the EU to businesses in third countries.”
    The main function of the Euro Info Correspondence Centre at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be to provide the following information to Ukrainian manufacturers and exporters:
    ° product certification;
    ° customs formalities and procedures, preparing export documentation for the EU member states;
    ° ecological criteria;
    ° marking and packaging requirements;
    ° preparing tender documentation;
    ° guidance in access to international projects facilitating SME development and similar EU projects for Ukraine;
    ° business meetings and conferences in the EU member states;
    ° information about international business networking and EU Internet sites;
    ° Ukrainian SME opportunities in the EU market.
    The EICC should be also involved in the process of harmonisation of the Ukrainian legislation with that of the European Union.
    The Ukrainian EICC - in its turn - should provide information to the EU member states on the market conditions in this country, legal acts that regulate activities of foreign companies in Ukraine.
    Background:
    With the opening of the Euro Info Correspondence Centre the European Commission takes forward the implementation of paragraph 45 of the joint EU-Ukraine Action Plan, namely to develop a dialogue on enterprise policy.
    The European Union is t! he bigge st trade partners of Ukraine with an amount of trade exceeding one third of the total foreign turnover figure. The EU is also the biggest foreign investor into Ukraine’s economy – more than 50 per cent of the FDI, the most generous donor whose share is estimated at over ? 1 billion since 1991. After EU enlargement on May 1st, 2004 Ukraine became a strategic Neighbour of the Common European Market embracing 25 states with a population of over 450 million people.
    For further information please contact Anje Schubert, Press Officer, Tel: (044) 253 30 20 or at anje.schubert@cec.eu.int
    To attend the opening ceremony of the Euro Info Correspondence Centre at the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry please call (044) 279 29 01 or 272 18 70.
    A full list of Euro Info Correspondence Centres is available on the website of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise:
    http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/networks/eic/eic_eicc.html