The Steering Committee, which is the coordination body of the Programme “Decentralisation and Territorial Consolidation in Ukraine” met on 13 March in Kyiv. The meeting was co-chaired by Claudia LUCIANI, Director of Democratic Governance, and Vyacheslav NEHODA, First Deputy Minister of Regional Development. First Deputy Minister NEHODA delivered a presentation about the reform achievements since its launch in April 2014. Claudia LUCIANI and Daniel POPESCU, Special Adviser to the Government on Decentralisation, congratulated the Ukrainian Government for the progress accomplished and reiterated the Council of Europe’s strong and constant support in this respect.

The results achieved in 2016 by the Programme “Decentralisation and Territorial Consolidation” and its new priorities and activities for 2017 were discussed during the meeting. The Steering Committee held also exchanges about the current state, challenges, prospects and priorities of the decentralisation and local self-government reform in Ukraine.

The meeting gathered together representatives of the embassies and international organisations which are donors to the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine, as well as representatives of the Parliamentary Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government, Presidential Administration, National Agency for Civil Service, National Academy of Public Administration, three national local government associations, NGO “Association of Small Towns of Ukraine”, Ukrainian think tanks and leading experts. The final Programme Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for December 2017.