On 18 September, the Ukrainian Bar Association held GR Conference 2026, a conference on the current state of Government Relations in Ukraine and the new rules of engagement between the state, business and the professional community.
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“Due to the security situation in the capital, we moved the event online, which also made it possible to make participation accessible to everyone,” says the founder and curator of the conference, Alyona Shulima, PhD, Partner at Pragma Consulting Group and member of the UBA GR Committee. “The conference took place one year after the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lobbying’ came into force, so participants were able to share their experience of its first results, insights from implementing GR cases, and the prospects for greater transparency in engagement with the state.”
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The discussion at GR Conference 2026 focused on:

• the first year of the Law of Ukraine “On Lobbying”: the operation of the Transparency Register, monitoring and enforcement practice, the experience of associations and businesses in adapting to the new requirements, and proposals to improve the status and rights of lobbying entities;
• lobbying as part of a culture of integrity: how to make lobbyist status an effective tool for engaging with the state, and what communication with executive authorities should look like;
• real GR cases: the practical experience of businesses and industry associations in working with the government and parliament, finding a balance of interests, and the sustainability of the decisions achieved;
• the public and human dimension of GR: the role of GR in implementing reforms, the transformation of the profession after the adoption of the new legislation, and public perception of lobbying and GR.

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Participants were addressed by the Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Maslov and the Head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) Viktor Pavlushchyk. The discussions brought together representatives of parliament, the NACP, business, industry associations, and lobbying and consulting firms.
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Alyona Shulima opened the conference together with UBA President Mykola Stetsenko and moderated the first session, dedicated to the first year of the Law “On Lobbying”. In it, representatives of the NACP, business associations, business and parliament shared their reflections on the first results of the Law and the ways to improve it.
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Olena Yaliieva, Counsel at Pragma Consulting Group and member of the Board of the UBA GR Committee, spoke in the closing session on “Public Perception of GR”. She emphasised that GR is broader than the final communication with public authorities, and that changing attitudes towards the profession is closely linked to the level of trust in institutions.
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A special focus of the event was a panel on real GR cases from representatives of business and business associations, moderated by Artur Martynenko, Head of the UBA GR Committee and Director of the Government Relations Department at BGV Group Management.
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Pragma Consulting Group traditionally acts as the General Partner of the event, and its team takes an active part in organising and running it. Supporting the sustainable development of this area within the UBA, Pragma has also been a partner of the UBA GR Committee for the fifth year in a row.
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