Ukraine will become part of the Interreg Europe cross-border cooperation programme this year, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna has said.

"This year, Ukraine will become part of the largest programme – Interreg Europe, which will allow not only to take part in projects in Europe, but also to form independent projects together with the regions and ensure their financing at the expense of the European Union," she said during the Decentralization Reform: a Roadmap conference on Tuesday.

According to her, it is important for Ukrainian communities to work with European Union funds, whose budgets significantly exceed the funds that communities receive within the budget, given its deficit under martial law.

"In recent years, we have become participants in all possible programmes that open up financing for the regions... The only thing that is required from the regions is consistency. We see that it is precisely those regions that took a proactive position, formed their own consistency, today have the opportunity to cover the insufficient financing in those areas that are not fully provided by the state budget," she said.

As reported, the European Commission in December 2022 approved four new EU programmes worth EUR 533 million for trans-European cooperation for balanced development (Interreg) for 2021-2027 with the participation of 10 member states of the union, as well as Ukraine and Moldova.