Ecorys backs Ukraine’s (post-)wartime Recovery via Policy Reform

Since the war in Ukraine, the country has faced immense challenges, with significant destruction to infrastructure and disruption to economic activities. Despite these hardships, Ukraine is making strides towards recovery. One notable effort is the EU4Business: SME Policies & Institutions Support (SMEPIS) Ukraine programme, which aims to streamline policies and regulatory frameworks, fostering a more resilient business support ecosystem. Ecorys has been leading this programme, marking an important milestone in Ukraine’s path to economic recovery.

Background

Ukraine pursues reforms and deregulation to simplify conditions for doing business and to support national reconstruction to make Ukraine’s economy more competitive and aligned with EU standards.

Funded by the European Union, Ecorys — together with GIZ, BRDO, and Civitta — supported the implementing of the EU4Business: SME Policies and Institutions Support (SMEPIS) project. The 3-year project aimed to simplify doing business, digitise public services, strengthen the capacity of business support organisations, and assist Ukraine on its path to EU integration.

The project’s key stakeholders are the Ukrainian Ministry of Economy (ME), the Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT), as well as the State Regulatory Service (SRSU) and the Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office of Ukraine (EEPO).

The final event in Kyiv (and online) on 2 July 2025 marked the conclusion of the SMEPIS project. Our Director Barney Shiels highlighted the importance of the project and thanked all partners and stakeholders in strengthening the resilience and competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ukraine. Below you can find the pictures of the event and key achievements.

Key achievements

Experts from our consortium, contributed to the following key achievements since the beginning of the project in January 2023:

1. Reduce administrative burden and ease of doing business with regulatory reform and digital tools for Business developed:
   • Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Deregulation reviewed 1323 regulatory instruments for business and over 300 regulatory instruments have been abolished.
   • SMEPIS contribution to the Deregulation reform is estimated to impact over 1.3 mln businesses and result in savings of EUR 434 mln (UAH 18,6 bln).
   • Diia.Business Portal (upgrade), integration with the national open data platform (data.gov.ua) of the Ukraine’s Unified State Digital System of Permit Documents (ePermit), Regulatory Portal, a platform for all regulatory procedures and Deregulation Website&Dashboard.
2. Support to key online and offline instruments for Ukraine to strengthen public-private dialogue for effective reforms, business growth and economic development.
3. Develop a Roadmap on Business ecosystem improvement and build capacity of over 260 representatives of business support organisations (BSOs) focused on Ukraine – EU Accession process and the SME Growth Framework.
4. Strengthen know-how of over 800 public officials from Ukraine’s authorities in SME policy development, EU integration and legislation, and access to EU Single Market.
5. Support to European and Ukrainian Enterprise Promotion Awards U/EEPA awards in 2023 – 2025 with over 200 applications, 15 UEPA winners and 6 EEPA nominations.
6. Strengthen technical and institutional capacity of Ukraine’s Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office (EEPO) Portfolio, development strategies and EEPO support continuity.

Please check out the full project results here. At Ecorys, we are proud to contribute our expertise to support Ukraine’s recovery and strengthen its economic resilience.