A delegation led by Gudrun Mosler-Törnström (Austria, SOC), Vice-President of the Congress, will undertake a visit to Ukraine from 22 to 26 October 2015 to observe the local elections scheduled for 25 October. The delegation, consisting of 57 observers from 25 Council of Europe member countries, will include members of the Congress, the EU Committee of the Regions and, for the first time, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. These elections are the first to be held under the new legislation on local elections adopted on 14 July 2015, which, among other things, introduces a combination of three electoral systems. Furthermore, Ukraine has been engaged since August 2015 in the adoption and implementation of an ambitious decentralisation policy in the context of the ongoing constitutional reform relating to a change in the country’s territorial structure.
