“The Congress and its Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance will continue assisting Ukraine in strengthening its multilevel governance system. We remain committed to further work hand in hand with central, regional and local authorities, their associations and civil society to advance Ukraine’s reforms,” stressed Congress Secretary General Mathieu Mori welcoming Ukraine’s progress towards EU membership.
As reported by the European Commission within its annual Enlargement Package adopted on 4 November 2025, “Ukraine remains strongly committed to its EU accession path, having successfully completed the screening process and advanced on key reforms”. The report stresses in particular the improvement made in governance, one of the topics on which the Congress is directly working with Ukraine.
Over the reporting period – from 1 September 2024 to 1 September 2025 – despite new challenges and volatile situation due to the Russian Federation’s war of aggression, the Council of Europe and its Congress, through its Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance (CEMG), has helped Ukraine achieve progress in the following areas:
- Concept of the decentralisation reform as a central element of Ukraine’s efforts to fulfil the requirements of EU accession: following the Council of Europe analysis, the Ministry for Development of Communities elaborated proposals for updating this umbrella Concept and carried out public consultations on the draft in September-October 2025;
- Division of competences between the state and local self-government and amongst their tiers: in June 2025 the CEMG facilitated “Strasbourg format” in-camera negotiations among the Ukrainian stakeholders that lead to a consensual conclusions document on principles (concept) of the division of competences;
- Local democracy and public consultations: three key laws were adopted or signed or came into force, thus broadening opportunities for citizens’ meaningful and direct engagement in policy and decision-making processes even under martial law. The CEMG provided its legal and policy advice on the matter, for example, contributed to elaboration of the law on local democracy since 2021.
The CEMG has implemented co-operation projects in Ukraine since 2010. The on-going support is provided within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023-2026 and the project “Strengthening multilevel governance and local democracy to support Ukraine's recovery.
