Launched with the support of the Congress in 2014, Ukraine’s decentralisation policy and the establishment of multi-level governance have helped the country’s local and regional authorities to respond more effectively to the upheavals and challenges it has faced since 2022. During a debate on decentralisation and the territorial organisation of power in Ukraine, held as part of the session of the Chamber of Regions, four Ukrainian mayors and regional officials, including the mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, emphasised how decentralisation had helped towns and regions to better cope with the Russian aggression, and how it remained essential for better organising support for the population and preparing for the reconstruction of devastated regions. In Mariupol alone, as its elected mayor Vadym Boychenko pointed out, 500,000 people have lost their homes, along with one million residents of Donetsk and 12 million nationwide. Decentralisation enables us to respond to this in a coordinated manner at the local and regional levels, he believes.
It is essential to stand alongside Ukrainian local authorities to continue these decentralisation efforts, especially since, as Christian Debeve (France, ILDG) pointed out, “it is already no easy task to decentralise in peacetime, so imagine the challenges this presents in a war situation!”. Several Ukrainian members of the Congress presented their efforts on the ground to organise relief efforts in bombed areas, as well as to accommodate people displaced by the war. They also emphasised the training of young Ukrainians in the management of local and regional affairs. According to Natasa Tramisak (Croatia, NI), structural investments are of course a priority, but strengthening territorial democracy – which requires the Congress to continue supporting Ukrainian local and regional elected representatives – is just as important.
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