Attracting and Retaining Talent in Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy: Turning Brain Drain into an EU Accession Asset

Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy sits at the centre of the country’s energy security, reconstruction and EU accession agenda, yet it employs barely more than 200 staff to cover a rapidly expanding scope of work. A structural talent trap – non-viable entry salaries, a two-tier public-sector labour market, blocked recruitment pipelines, and weak retention – means the Ministry too often trains staff, only to see them move on to better-paid roles at NEURC, state-owned companies, or donor-funded projects.

A recent paper examined this talent trap and proposed a set of targeted, low-cost policy responses, including an entry-level salary floor, a dedicated “energy accession entry track”, a scholarship-with-return-obligation programme, and structured mobility between the Ministry, NEURC and international partners. The initial findings were discussed during an event at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, with the outcomes of the discussion informing the further development of the paper.

This webinar will present the paper’s key findings and recommendations and provide a platform for open discussion on next steps, including how the EU’s post-2027 Ukraine Facility could use targeted conditionality to support human capital reform in the Ministry of Energy.

Webinar Agenda