The Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Municipal Economy of Ukraine Mr. Gennadiy Zubko participated in the signing ceremony which took place during the launch of the new Swiss-Ukrainian joint program.

After the signing of the Memorandum, the Head of the Swiss Cooperation Office Ukraine Mr. Guido Beltrani highlighted: „Within the EGAP Program we plan to use e-governance and e-democracy tools as enablers for building the trust and cooperation between local authorities and citizens. We are confident that modern information and communication technologies are excellent tools for a more efficient provision of administrative services to citizens both from urban and rural areas, and for more transparent and inclusive decision making”.

The EGAP seeks to strengthen good governance and modern public service delivery and social innovation in Ukraine by using the new information communication technologies (ICTs).

The selected partner regions are the Oblasts of Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Vinnytsia and Volyn.

Switzerland held the OSCE Chairmanship in 2014 – for the second time since it first held the post in 1996. In 2015, Switzerland continues at the helm of the OSCE within the framework of the Troika, which comprises the current Chair, Serbia, the previous year's Chair, Switzerland, and the country that takes over the Chair in the following year, Germany. The purpose of the Troika is to ensure continuity in the OSCE's political priorities.

Of prime important for the OSCE is the need to continue in 2015 its efforts to de-escalate and overcome the crisis in Ukraine. Switzerland remains committed to finding a political solution to the conflict on the basis of the Minsk agreements of September 2014 that were negotiated between the Trilateral Contact Group and representatives of the separatist groups from eastern Ukraine. The Trilateral Contact Group comprises representatives of Ukraine and Russia. Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini of Switzerland continues to work in this body as special envoy of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.  Switzerland supports the Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (SMMU) financially and by seconding experts. The SMMU was established on 21 March 2014 under the Swiss Chairmanship and with the agreement of all OSCE participating States.

The Ukraine crisis has brought to the surface a crisis of confidence among the participating States. For this reason Switzerland attaches great importance to cooperative security and restoring confidence within Europe. In close cooperation with Serbia and Germany, Switzerland set up a group of 15 eminent persons mandated to draw conclusions from the Ukraine crisis and to support the OSCE participating States in conducting an inclusive and constructive dialogue on security in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian region.