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Ukraine associated to EU’s digitisation programme

Country can access funding and support for supercomputing, artificial intelligence and other digital technologies

Organisations in Ukraine can now access EU funding and support for work on areas including supercomputing and artificial intelligence, after the country was associated to the bloc’s €7.5 billion 2021-27 Digital Europe programme.

The association was finalised on 5 September, as political representatives met to discuss how the EU could provide further support to help Ukraine cope with the Russian invasion. No contribution to the Digital Europe budget is expected from Ukraine in 2022.

European Commission executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager said that Ukraine had “shown remarkable resilience and technological prowess” in dealing with the invasion, and that the association would enable the EU and Ukraine to “benefit from each other’s know-how and expand our digital capacities”.

Thierry Breton, the commissioner for internal market, said: “This will be instrumental in bringing Ukrainian businesses, researchers and public authorities closer to the EU in terms of building common digital infrastructures, as well as fostering digital transformation for the benefit of our people.”

The programme also supports the development of advanced digital skills and the rollout of digital technologies, including through innovation hubs.

More broadly, Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, said that the main message from the political meeting was “that the EU will continue supporting Ukraine whatever threat, whatever blackmail Russia puts on us…politically, financially, in the humanitarian field and militarily, as long as it takes, and as much as needed”.