Ukraine plans to temporarily simplify licensing procedures for accelerated recovery – deputy head of President's Office

DAVOS. Jan 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine aims to quickly, possibly within a year, harmonize its regulatory procedures with the norms of the European Union as part of its accession to the EU, but for the period of intensive recovery – from five to 10 years – to make exceptions from them, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Rostyslav Shurma has said.

"What we should understand that besides the EU accession, we will have a period of intensive rebuilding the country for the next 5-7-10 years. And to make this rebuilding process fast, we should simplify many processes," he said on Wednesday in Davos on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the discussion at the Ukraine House Davos organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, Western NIS Enterprise Fund and Horizon Capital.

Shurma explained that it could be about harmonizing environmental standards during the construction of new industrial production or power facilities, which in Europe could take years, but Ukraine will do temporary solutions so it takes months.

"For example, if you want to rebuild the infrastructure, you need to rebuild the roads, bridges, grids, lines. You need to take the land quickly to put the line to put the road there. Obviously, it will assume some temporary procedure for five to seven years to very quick and simplified seizure of the land for building infrastructure," the Deputy Head of the President’s Office added.

He said that these temporary exceptions for intensive recovery will be agreed in advance.