The Fuel and Energy Business Association (FEBA) participated in the Forum “Ukraine’s Recovery: European Integration and Institutional Reforms,” which brought together representatives of the government, business, and the expert community to discuss key economic, tax, and institutional changes necessary for Ukraine’s recovery.
A central theme of the Forum was the European integration process and Ukraine’s future accession to the European Union. This is a complex, multi-level process for both Ukraine and Europe itself, involving not just the adaptation of Ukrainian legislation to European rules, but the mutual integration of economies, markets, institutions, and security approaches. Ukraine is a large nation with powerful agricultural, industrial, energy, and logistical potential. Its full inclusion in the European economic space is an ambitious task for both Ukraine and the EU. It requires not merely a formal copying of norms, but a deep dialogue on how to harmonize economic interests, security challenges, and real business opportunities.
Today, Ukraine effectively serves as a security belt for Europe, containing an aggression that poses a threat to the entire continent. At the same time, the war forces Ukraine to change faster than often happens in peacetime: modernizing institutions, implementing new regulatory approaches, revising business rules, and finding solutions for challenges that European countries have not previously faced on such a scale. Therefore, European integration for Ukraine is not just about fulfilling requirements and obligations—it is a mutual process in which Ukraine also contributes new experience to Europe: experience in resilience, wartime economic adaptation, critical infrastructure protection, and maintaining business operations under constant risk.
For the fuel market, these issues are not theoretical but entirely practical. Today, businesses operate amid high security risks, infrastructure damage, difficult access to financing, tax burdens, and the constant need to adapt quickly to new rules. One of the key topics for FEBA was war risk insurance and mechanisms for partial compensation for businesses whose property may be damaged or destroyed due to armed aggression. This is especially urgent for enterprises operating in high-risk regions, such as the Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. This is not just about compensation mechanisms, but about the business’s ability to continue operations, restore damaged facilities, retain jobs, and provide communities with critically needed goods and services. For the fuel market, this issue is directly linked to the country’s energy resilience.
The Forum also paid close attention to tax reforms, VAT administration, the work of the automated risk-monitoring system (SMCOR), reforming the simplified taxation system, and future changes Ukraine must implement as part of its European integration process and international commitments. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it is fundamentally important that such changes be predictable, discussed with the market, and do not create additional pressure during wartime. Businesses are already under extraordinary pressure, so any tax or regulatory decisions must be implemented with regard to the actual state of enterprises, their solvency, and their capacity to invest in recovery. It is important that the discussion maintains a focus on the fact that the most sensitive changes for small businesses—particularly regarding the simplified taxation system and VAT approaches—must be handled carefully, with transition periods and following a broad dialogue with the entrepreneurial community.
The public agenda also includes the issue of taxing international parcels. According to Danylo Hetmantsev, Head of the Verkhovna Rada Tax Committee, the relevant legislative package could be passed toward the end of the year, and changes to the Tax and Customs Codes should be considered together. For business, this is another example showing that the 2026 tax agenda will be intense and will require the constant attention of professional associations. It is especially important that new rules are implemented not as additional pressure on entrepreneurs, but as part of a clear, predictable, and balanced policy.
FEBA consistently maintains the position that reforms must not only fulfill Ukraine’s international obligations but also preserve the economic viability of businesses, which today effectively shoulder a significant portion of the resilience of communities, logistics, and critical infrastructure.
Ukraine’s recovery is impossible without a strong business sector. And fuel infrastructure is one of the foundations of that resilience.
