Finland to donate €500K to OECD’s Ukraine Programme

Finland will contribute EUR 500,000 to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Ukraine Country Programme, said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in a press release on Wednesday.

Finland’s Permanent Representative to the OECD, Ambassador Pasi-Heikki Vaaranmaa on Wednesday signed the agreement between Finland and the OECD in Paris in this regard.

The contribution is a follow-up on Finland’s earlier donation of EUR 50,000 to the programme.

The Ukraine Country Programme is the largest of the OECD’s country programmes.

The four-year programme, costing a total of EUR 16.5 million, supports Ukraine in developing its legislation and institutions and helps the country prepare for its prospective membership in the EU and the OECD.

The member states of the OECD agreed to launch the Ukraine Country Programme at its Ministerial Council Meeting in 2023.

The programme consists of policy reviews and capacity-building projects, and it will enable Ukraine to make use of OECD legal instruments in its reforms and to draw closer to OECD bodies.

The OECD members have stressed that programme implementation will be coordinated closely with Ukraine’s other international partners with due consideration of the associated risks. Finland’s contribution will be EUR 500,000

In the programme, Finland values the focus on reinforcing good governance, developing the rule of law and administrative structures, improving anti-corruption measures and promoting business environment reforms based on the OECD’s core expertise and its earlier experience of Ukraine.

The Ukraine Country Programme supports Finland’s development policy priorities in Ukraine, which aim to strengthen the rule of law, energy security and climate sustainability of Ukraine and to improve the quality of education and training in the country.