Ukraine okayed to join e-waybill system of European Union
Photo: EPA

Ukraine has successfully passed the selection for participation in the EU4Digital pilot project, which involves joining the European Union's unified electronic waybill system — e-CMR, reported the press service of the Ministry of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure.

At this stage, Ukraine is testing the national e-waybill system, which will later be integrated with the European one.

As part of the EU4Digital pilot, a working group was formed to assess the current state of electronic exchange of information on cargo transportation in Ukraine.

Also, during 2023, the group will develop an action plan for the integration of the electronic freight transportation platform of Ukraine and the EU, in particular, the compliance of e-waybills with the standards of electronic freight transportation information exchange (eFTI).

Ukraine planned to launch electronic waybills from August 2022 to completely replace paper documents. As LIGA.net wrote, with reference to State Statistics Service data, entrepreneurs had to print about 150 tons of documents to transport more than 150 million tons of cargo in 2020 alone. The transition to "digital" should speed up the processes of exchanging waybills by more than 90%.

Testing of e-waybills by system operators began only in December 2022, while in January 2023, businesses joined the testing process.

"During the past year, active work on the introduction of electronic waybills of Ukraine continued. We have business support in this direction and are currently testing the product. The advantage of the e-waybill system in Ukraine is its development immediately taking into account European data exchange standards. This will make integration with the European system e-CMR easier," commented Anatoliy Komirnyi, Deputy Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure.

On June 29, 2022, Ukraine signed a "transport visa-free" agreement with the European Union.

On December 12, the eCherha electronic queue for trucks was launched on the border with Poland.