EC/Ukraine Agreement on cooperation in science and technology: renewal of the Agreement

The European Parliament adopted by 591 votes to 9, with 9 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the draft Council decision on the renewal of the Agreement on cooperation in science and technology between the European Community and Ukraine.

Parliament gave its consent to the renewal of the Agreement.

As a reminder, the ‘Agreement on cooperation in science and technology between the European Community and Ukraine’ was signed in Copenhagen on 4 July 2002 and was concluded originally until 31 December 2002. The Agreement provides for a possibility of renewal by common agreement between the Parties for additional periods of five years. The Agreement has been renewed four times: in 2003, 2011, 2015 and 2020.

Ukraine has a long tradition of science and technology excellence and despite the difficulties of the last years and Russia’s unlawful and unprovoked war of aggression, Ukraine still has first class science and scientists, and remains an important science, technology and innovation (STI) actor in the neighbourhood of the Union. Cooperation between the Union and Ukraine has traditionally been very active notably in the fields of advanced/new materials, IT-technology, physics and astronomy, engineering, agricultural technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology and their applications across various sectors such as aviation, energy, and biomedicine, in particular immunotherapies for cancer.

The proposed decision aims to extend the existing Agreement, the content of which will otherwise remain unchanged. The content of the Agreement will remain unchanged and will not create new or additional rights and obligations for either of the Parties, but instead it will extend in time the legal regime already existing between the Parties in the field of scientific and technological cooperation.