On February 25, a roundtable on energy effiency in the framework of Ukraine and Visegrad Group (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia) cooperation was held in Lviv.

In her welcome remarks at the opening ceremony Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on European integration issues Ms. Olena Zerkal stressed the importance of cooperation between Ukraine and countries of the Visegrad Group (V4) on implementing reforms in Ukraine, including areas of energy efficiency, education, development of civil society and decentralization of government.

In the framework of this meeting also were conducted political consultations of Ukraine and V4 at the level of deputy foreign ministers / secretaries of state - Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Marek Ziolkowski, State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Slovak Republic Igor Slobodnik, Minister of State for Security policy and international cooperation Istvan Mikołów, Junior Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jaroslav Ludva.

Deputy Minister O.Zerkal informed her colleagues about the process of the reforms in Ukraine, fulfillment of EU conditions for the introduction of visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens. Situation in Donbass as well as other issues on the international agenda have also been discussed.

Visegrad partners confirmed their consistent support for territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. They have also expressed readiness to promote the European integration of Ukraine, particuraly EU visa-free regime for Ukrainians. The sides also touched on new possible areas of sectoral interaction between Ukraine and the Visegrad group.

The next meeting in the “Ukraine-V4” format, dedicated to small and medium businesses development is scheduled for April 2016.

Note: At their meeting on November 16, 2014 in Bratislava Ukraine and Visegrad Group and heads of state reached an agreement on the "patronage" over specific areas of reforms in Ukraine by each of V4 countries. Since then 3 meetings at the level of deputy ministers / secretaries of state of Foreign Affairs and the leadership of relevant departments were held in Lviv (October 8, 2014, inaugural), Chernihiv (April 20, 2015, on issues of local governance and decentralization, patronage of Poland) Chernivtsi (13 October 2015 on reform of higher education, patronage of the Czech Republic).        

Road show on energy efficiency runs in Lviv (25-26 February 2016) under the patronage of Slovakia.