Our country held the Ukrainian stage of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) and recognised domestic business leaders.
“The European Union continues to support Ukrainian SMEs through many EU4Business programmes, which, among other things, help to establish new connections and integrate Ukrainian partners into European practices. The European Enterprise Promotion Awards, which Ukraine is once again joining, is a powerful platform for supporting entrepreneurship, recognising the best initiatives, business networking and leadership. This year, thanks to a large-scale national campaign, even more, Ukrainian participants became aware of the award and joined the competition, as a result of which the best projects will be presented at the European level and will once again demonstrate the talent and resilience of Ukrainians despite the challenges of war,” said Iryna Hubarets, Sector Manager – Competition and Economic Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine.
119 applicants submitted applications for participation in the competition. In the final selection round, project representatives presented their activities live to the jury.
Among the finalists, one winner was selected in each of the six categories:
- The “Promotion of Entrepreneurial Spirit” nomination went to the “New Economy of Ivano-Frankivsk” project.
- The “Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills” nomination went to the “Boot Camp” project.
- The “Support for Digital Technologies” nomination went to the “Climate Innovation Vouchers” project.
- The “Improving the Business Environment and Supporting Business Internationalisation” nomination went to the “Development of International Entrepreneurship” project.
- The “Support for Sustainable Transformation” nomination went to the “Innovate4Ukraine: Climate&Energy Action” project.
- The “Responsible and Inclusive Entrepreneurship” nomination went to the “Impact Business Accelerator” project.
The two category winners will go to the European EERA awards ceremony at the #SMEassembly2024, which will take place in Hungary in November 2024. The jury decided that this year Ukraine will be represented by the “Climate Innovation Vouchers” project and the “New Economy of Ivano-Frankivsk (NEF) — supporting emerging innovative economic activity clusters”.
A separate Grand Prix award for the most creative and inspiring business initiative in Ukraine went to the International Entrepreneurship Development project.
The jury of the competition:
- Yulia Kozyrkina, Head of the Entrepreneurship Development Department of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine
- Andrii Remizov, Director of the State Institution “Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office”
- Oksana Prodan, Advisor to the Chairman of the Association of Cities of Ukraine
- Oksana Myronko, Head of Communications, European Business Association
- Yulia Fedosiuk, Director General of UAPAY
- Yuliia Vrublevska, Project Coordinator at the UNIC Secretariat
- Tetiana Chernytska, Professor of the Department of International Economics, Kyiv National Economic University (KNEU)
The national coordinator of the competition is the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Enterprise Promotion Awards 2024 was initiated by the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office within the framework of the EU4Business project: SME Policies and Institutions Support (SMEPIS) project, implemented by Ecorys in consortium with GIZ, BRDO and Civitta and funded by the European Union in Ukraine.