Ukraine may soon become the main supplier of biomethane to the European Union, with the share of Ukrainian biomethane in the European market reaching 20% in the future, said Georgiy Geletukha, Chairman of the Board of the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine (BAU).
“Ukraine has almost ideal conditions for biomethane production. We have medium and large agricultural enterprises with 3 thousand hectares of land (under cultivation – IF-U). We can get raw materials for the plant from a single source. We have a well-developed gas structure: distribution networks and a gas transmission network. We have the highest density of gas network coverage in the whole of Europe. We have the largest area of agricultural land and, accordingly, the largest resource. Therefore, this is a very promising topic for us,” he said at the Ukrainian Investment Congress in Kyiv.
Heletukha emphasized that Europe has ambitious plans for the production and consumption of biomethane and aims to consume about 35 billion cubic meters in 2030. At present, European production is estimated at around 3 billion cubic meters. Given the current trends in the alternative energy market, the EU will be able to increase its own production to 20 billion cubic meters of biomethane within five years.
The expert explained this delay in the development of the biomethane market in Europe by the lack of large free areas of agricultural land and, accordingly, the inability to produce the necessary amount of raw materials for processing.
“And according to all trends, it will not have time to produce 35 billion cubic meters. Well, according to the trends over the past five years, they will reach about 20 billion cubic meters. The market there (in the EU – IF-U) is completely different for agricultural products. It is deficit. And it will be deficient at least until 2050. And after 2030, Europe is setting new plans – production and consumption of 100 billion cubic meters of biomethane by 2050. It will be the same story. That is, they do not have time, they do not have enough raw materials,” Geletukha emphasized.
He suggested that if Ukraine were to produce up to 15 billion cubic meters of biomethane now, the EU would “buy everything with a bang.”
The UABIO CEO reminded that three powerful producers – MHP, Vitagro and Gals Agro – have already launched biomethane production in Ukraine, of which two have already started exporting, and the third is accumulating stocks in storage and will start exporting in the near future.
According to him, in Ukraine, the range of biomethane producers and potential exporters will expand in 2025. They will be joined by another MHP enterprise, Teofipol Energy Company and Józefów-Mykolaiv Biogas Company. In total, Ukrainian facilities will produce 111 million cubic meters of biomethane per year.
At a cost of EUR900 per 1 thousand cubic meters of biomethane produced from crop waste or from livestock waste, including manure or litter, at EUR1100-1200 per 1 thousand cubic meters, Ukraine will be able to receive up to EUR100 billion a year from exporting these products to the EU, Geletukha predicts.
As reported, the first batch of Ukrainian biomethane of 67 thousand cubic meters was exported on February 7, 2025 by Vitagro, an energy holding whose plant with a capacity of 3 million cubic meters of biomethane per year operates in Khmelnytsky region. The exports were made to Germany.
On February 11, MHP’s biomethane plant Oril-Leader (Dnipropetrovska oblast) exported 27.4 thousand cubic meters of biomethane, becoming the second Ukrainian company to do so. MHP exported biomethane via gas pipelines across the Ukrainian-Polish border to Germany. The buyer was Vitol. The capacity of Oril-Leader is 11 million cubic meters per year.
The Gals Agro agricultural holding has built a biomethane plant with a capacity of 3 million cubic meters in Chernihiv region. The company has already been connected to the grid and is preparing to make its first biomethane export transaction.
One of the criteria for participation in state reconstruction programs should be their compliance with the new law “On the Placing of Construction Products on the Market”, also known as EU Regulation 305, says Andriy Ozeychuk, director of the engineering and construction company Rauta and chairman of the board of directors of the Ukrainian Steel Construction Center Association.
“The implementation of the requirements of Regulation 305 will improve the quality of Ukrainian construction products to the European level and create prerequisites for Ukrainian producers to participate in international tenders for the reconstruction of Ukraine and open up opportunities for exporting construction materials to the EU market,” he explained during the roundtable discussion ”Public Partnership and Investment in Territorial Recovery. How to Involve Ukrainian Construction Materials Producers in the Reconstruction Process” at the Interfax-Ukraine press center on Friday.
Mr. Ozeychuk emphasized that the state should promote more active involvement of Ukrainian producers in the recovery process and create the preconditions for the development of the construction industry.
According to him, there are currently no designated conformity assessment bodies for several product categories to fully implement Regulation 305. Another pressing issue is the possibility of recognizing the test results of EU laboratories in Ukraine, which will avoid the procedure for obtaining a certificate of stability of indicators.
He also mentioned the persistence of corruption in tenders, when the terms of reference are prescribed for the products of a particular manufacturer.
At the same time, he believes it is crucial to eliminate non-market pricing, when the real wages of construction workers differ significantly from those that can be agreed upon by the regulatory authorities; to reduce the risks of non-payment for work performed and delays in financing.
Mr. Ozeychuk noted that the state should take a systematic approach to restoring the war-affected industry. It is necessary to support the creation of new production facilities for construction materials that are not produced in Ukraine or their production volumes are insufficient for potential recovery (European steel, thick plates, hardware, glass, insulation, membranes, etc.)
“It is important for the state to encourage European partners to involve Ukrainian producers in financing the recovery, rather than importing structures from the EU, as is sometimes the case now. (It should – IF-U) give preference to Ukrainian producers without limiting foreign suppliers of products and services, unless there is a full-fledged alternative in Ukraine. This is especially true for products that are equivalent in quality to their European counterparts,” Ozeychuk emphasized.
He pointed out that Ukrainian manufacturers of metal structures have sufficient potential for recovery and are already at the level of European ones: they design according to Eurocodes, work according to modern EN 1090 standards and use BIM technologies, the expert explained.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen says that the European Union and its member states have provided EUR 145 billion in assistance to Ukraine.
“The European Union and its member states have supported Ukraine with 145 billion euros. This is more than anyone else has helped,” von der Leyen said during the Support Ukraine plenary session in Kyiv on Monday.
According to her, the EU has helped Ukraine cover the country’s budget deficit for the entire year 2025.
“In parallel, we must immediately provide weapons and armaments. And this will be at the center of our work over the next few weeks,” the European Commission President emphasized.
She also emphasized that Europe will strengthen Ukraine “at this critical moment”.
“I can announce that a new payment of 3.5 billion euros to Ukraine will be received in March,” von der Leyen said.
President of the European Council Antonio Costa and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will visit Uzbekistan on April 3-4 to participate in the first EU-Central Asia Summit.
The summit will be chaired by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and will be attended by the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
During the summit, the EU is expected to reaffirm its commitment to expanding cooperation in areas of mutual interest, including transport and digital interconnectivity – within the region and with the EU, strategic raw materials, economy and security, and the transition to clean and efficient energy sources.
“The first EU-Central Asia Summit will strengthen our commitment to work together for peace, security and sustainable development, in full respect of international law,” said António Costa.
After the full-scale invasion and blocking of seaports in 2022, Ukraine began to actively use land routes for exporting agricultural products, which significantly reduced the transit of agricultural products through the EU, according to the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB).
Analysts noted that the maximum volume exported across the borders of neighboring countries was 3.7 million tons of grains, oilseeds and their products in August 2023, when the “grain corridor” had already stopped working and Ukraine’s own sea route had not yet started working.
Experts stated that the structure of exports by country was as follows: Romania – 73% of the total exported volume (thanks to the seaport of Constanta), Poland – 14%, Hungary – 9%, Moldova – 2%, and Slovakia – 2%.
“Establishing its own export route has allowed Ukraine to reduce transit through neighboring countries. Over the past 6 months of 2024, the average monthly volume of exports through neighboring countries decreased by 3.7 times compared to the peak figure and averaged 1.0 million tons of grains, oilseeds and processed products,” the UCAB emphasized.
At the same time, in December 2024, compared to the peak, exports through the Romanian border decreased by 8.2 times to 0.3 million tons, Polish – by 1.9 times to 0.3 million tons, Hungarian – by 1.9 times to 0.2 million tons, Moldovan – by 8.9 times to 0.01 million tons and Slovak – by 12.0 times to 0.01 million tons.
As of December 31, 2024, 4 million 260.08 thousand non-EU citizens who fled Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, had temporary protection status in the EU, which is 25.59 thousand, or 0.6%, more than a month earlier, Eurostat reports.
“The largest absolute increase in the number of beneficiaries was observed in Germany (+8830; +0.8%), Poland (+3705; +0.4%) and the Czech Republic (+3435; +0.9%),” the agency said.
It is noted that the number of people under temporary protection in December decreased only in Denmark (-1,995; -5.1%), Italy (-1,310; -0.8%) and France (-595; -1.0%).
According to Eurostat, Germany remains the country with the largest number of refugees from Ukraine in the EU and the world by a growing margin – 1 million 161.45 thousand by the end of 2024, or 27.3% of the total number of beneficiaries in the EU.
The top three also includes Poland – 991.63 thousand, or 23.3%, and the Czech Republic – 388.63 thousand, or 9.1%.
Spain (226.62 thousand), Romania (179.72 thousand), and Italy (163.10 thousand) follow with a significant lag.
According to Eurostat, in general, in 2024, the number of migrants from Ukraine with temporary protection status decreased by 52.14 thousand people, but at the end of 2023, the data from Switzerland, where 68.05 thousand such citizens are currently staying, was not taken into account.
In Germany, in 2024, the number of refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status decreased by 89.80 thousand due to the data update at the end of 2023, while in Poland it increased by 36.84 thousand, in the Czech Republic – by 15.59 thousand, in Spain – by 31.70 thousand, in Romania – by 33.87 thousand, and in Italy – by 1.73 thousand.
In recent months, Eurostat has also clarified that the data for Spain, Greece, and Cyprus take into account some people whose temporary protection status is no longer valid.
According to the agency, compared to the population of each EU member state, the largest number of temporary protection beneficiaries per thousand people at the end of 2024 was observed in the Czech Republic (35.7), Poland (27.1) and Estonia (25.8), while the corresponding figure at the EU level is 9.5.
It is also worth noting that at the end of 2024, Ukrainian citizens accounted for more than 98.3% of temporary protection beneficiaries. Adult women accounted for almost half (44.8%) of temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU, children for almost a third (31.9%), while adult men accounted for less than a quarter (23.2%) of the total. A year earlier, the share of women was 46.2%, children 33.2% and adult men 20.6%.
More than 100 thousand people with temporary protection status at the end of 2024 were also in Slovakia – 131.53 thousand, the Netherlands – 121.30 thousand and Ireland – 109.99 thousand.
Between 50 thousand and 100 thousand of them were in Belgium – 87.24 thousand, Austria – 85.56 thousand, Norway – 78.77 thousand, Finland – 69.39 thousand, Bulgaria – 68.94 thousand, Switzerland – 68.05 thousand, Portugal – 65.29 thousand and France – 58.53 thousand (data on children are mostly not included – Eurostat).
This is followed by Lithuania – 48.25 thousand, Latvia – 48.09 thousand, Sweden – 46.41 thousand, Hungary – 39.17 thousand, Denmark – 36.92 thousand, Greece – 32.537 thousand, Estonia – 35.44 thousand, Croatia – 25.95 thousand, Cyprus – 22.16 thousand, Iceland – 4.2, 22 thousand and Liechtenstein – 0.70 thousand.
Eurostat clarified that all data relate to the granting of temporary protection on the basis of EU Council Decision 2022/382 of March 4, 2022, which establishes the existence of a massive influx of displaced persons from Ukraine due to Russia’s military invasion and entails the introduction of temporary protection. On June 25, 2024, the European Council decided to extend temporary protection for these persons from March 4, 2025 to March 4, 2026.
According to updated UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of January 16, 2025, was estimated at 6.303 million, and in the world at 6.863 million, which is 49 thousand more than as of December 16.
In Ukraine itself, according to the latest UN data, there are 3.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), approximately 160,000 people displaced from the frontline areas in the east and south between May and October 2024 due to the intensification of hostilities.
As Deputy Economy Minister Serhiy Sobolev noted in early March 2023, the return of every 100,000 Ukrainians home results in a 0.5% increase in GDP. In its January inflation report, the National Bank estimated the outflow from Ukraine in 2024 at 0.5 million (0.315 million according to the State Border Guard Service). The NBU also maintained its 2025 outflow forecast at 0.2 million.
Source: http://relocation.com.ua/the-number-of-refugees-from-ukraine-in-eu-es/
