Using European Financial Instruments for the Development of the Agro-Industrial Sector (small and medium-sized businesses) in Ukraine

At the present stage of the Association Agreement implementation, more and more opportunities are opened in Ukraine for attracting European investments to its agribusiness sector. Unfortunately, the existence of funding facilities does not always mean that they are effectively used since the insufficient awareness about the existing opportunities, the small number of experts in this domain, and the lack of so-called success stories preclude from using the long-existing tools of financial support.

The goal of this project was to increase public participation in the implementation of European support programmes for small and medium businesses. The project activities included analytical work on the use of European funding facilities in recent practices of Ukrainian small to medium enterprises (SME).

By distributing the high-quality intelligible materials with information on the best practices of using the EU funding facilities, the project was aimed to increase the interest in and active use of the available facilities by SMEs. Such activities are an effective tool for implementing priorities of the Association Agreement and the Eastern Partnership initiative and, most importantly, encourage employing the acquired knowledge for own business development.