Ukraine has officially joined the European program supporting small and medium businesses COSME. The relevant agreement has been signed in Brussels between Director General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs in the European Commission Lowri Evans and the representative of Ukraine in the European Union Nikolai Tochitskiy, informed press service of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.
“At last, Ukraine has signed the agreement and our entrepreneurs will have an opportunity to enjoy all the privileges offered by COSME”, - Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Yuliya Klimenko stated.
The next step for Ukraine will be ratification of the Agreement by parliament.
COSME (2014-2020) is a program of the European Union, aimed at strengthening competitiveness and sustainability of small and medium enterprises. Budget of the organization amounts to €2,3 billion.
COSME supports various projects, which include streamlining of access to foreign markets, improvement of competitiveness conditions, development of business culture, clusters, tourism, protection of intellectual property rights for companies, operating in countries, which are not members of the EU.
Ukraine has become the 8th country beyond the EU that joined COSME. Among other countries are Montenegro, Macedonia, Moldavia, Turkey, Albania, Serbia and Armenia.
