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The Pulse of the Agreement, an information and analytical system for monitoring the implementation of the Association Agreement, has revised the status of fulfillment of healthcare commitments. It now stands at 75%, which means that in the second quarter of 2023, the Ministry of Health managed to increase it by 4%. Overall, over the first 6 months of this year, the progress in fulfilling the obligations under the Association Agreement with the EU in the healthcare sector is 9%.

“Ukraine has every chance to become an EU member by 2027. The results of the self-screening showed that for this purpose, our country has to implement about 3,000 acts of EU law into national legislation. In the healthcare sector, this includes more than 300 regulations and directives. There is a lot of work to be done, which means we have no right to delay and are speeding up all our rulemaking processes as much as possible. Everyone has a role to play here: the parliament - in adopting laws, the government - in implementing norms, standards and reforms, and business - in reconfiguring its processes to European standards. It is real, we just have to be ready for a serious marathon,” said Maryna Slobodnichenko, Deputy Minister of Health for European Integration.

In the second quarter of 2023, a number of European integration regulations in the healthcare sector were finalized. In particular, in the regulation of social policy and labor relations, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, as well as in the public health sector.

In total, between April and June, the Ministry of Health completed work on 8 European integration orders implementing the European integration:

• maximum permissible levels of pesticide residues in food and feed of plant and animal origin in accordance with EU standards (Order of the Ministry of Health No. 625 of 04.04.2023);
• state sanitary norms and rules on safety and protection of workers from the harmful effects of asbestos and materials and products containing it (Order of the Ministry of Health No. 1013 of 05.06.2023);
• the procedure for assessing the level of danger of exposure of employees to biological agents and a single list of biological agents that pose or may pose a danger to human health (Order of the Ministry of Health No. 365 of 22.02.2023);
• special protective measures in production processes, laboratories and animal housing (Order of the Ministry of Health No. 186 of 31.01.2023);
• limit and operating values of noise exposure in the workplace (Order of the Ministry of Health No. 540 of 23.03.2023);
• the procedure for assessing the level of danger of noise exposure to an employee and the actions of employers in case of detection of the danger of noise exposure to employees (Order of the Ministry of Health No. 572 of 28.03.2023);
• safety and hygiene requirements for manual handling of goods (Order of the Ministry of Health No. 1191 of 30.06.2023);
• improvements to the procedure for monitoring compliance with the safety and quality indicators of donated blood and its components (Order of the Ministry of Health No. 818 of 02.05.2023).  

During this period, an important European integration order of the Ministry of Health No. 2020 of November 10, 2022 also came into force. Since 20 June, a new procedure for collecting and transmitting information on cases of acute and chronic occupational diseases (poisonings) to the automated record-keeping system has been in place in Ukraine.

In addition, thanks to the coordinated work of all branches of government, in June the Verkhovna Rada passed draft law No. 8290, which improves the regulation of food security and livestock development. A number of provisions of this draft law will allow consumers to receive safe products, in particular, by strengthening hygiene requirements and more detailed labeling (implementation of the requirements of EU Regulation No. 178/2002).

It should be recalled that in the first quarter of 2023, the Ministry of Health reached 70% of its obligations under the Association Agreement with the EU, which is 4% higher than in 2022.