Building Ukraine Back Better: The Role of Czechia and the EU
Pavel Havlíček
/ Ed. 13. 6. 2023
Russian invasion cost not only an enormous number of human lives, but also caused damages in hundreds of billions of dollars. For this reason, both Ukraine and its partners started planning post-war recovery and looking for ways to ensure its funding and sustainability.
There is a consensus that the process of recovery should not encompass simple rebuilding of what was damaged, but building it back better. Inherent part of the recovery is supposed to be a reform process that will bring Ukraine closer to EU membership and a green transition in order to modernize the country.
The authors discuss perspectives of Ukraine, the EU and Czechia, their priorities, concrete activities and possible challenges, including funding from frozen Russian assets in the West. They conclude that Czechia is among the leaders in the process and that the discussion on the level of the EU has been so far fragmented, but gained momentum in the last months. From Ukraine’s perspective, to ensure success of the recovery, it is necessary to deal with its internal challenges and provide a tangible European future as a motivation.
