On 29 September, a meeting of the National Barrier-Free Council was held in Kyiv with the participation of the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska and the new Government headed by Prime Minister of Ukraine Serhii Koretskyi. The meeting reviewed progress achieved in 2025 and during the first nine months of 2026, presented the results of flagship projects and identified the tasks to be completed by the end of 2026.
The meeting brought together members of the Barrier-Free Council, representatives of national and local authorities, international organisations and partners, barrier-free coordinators of local communities, barrier-free ambassadors, as well as representatives of business and civil society.
Hilde Haug, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, outlined the Council of Europe’s work over the past year to support the implementation of the National Barrier-Free Strategy. She highlighted, in particular, efforts to raise awareness of the rights of persons with disabilities and promote barrier-free language; support the alignment of legislation, policies and practices concerning the rights of persons with disabilities with European standards; and facilitate dialogue among civil society organisations on the development of secondary legislation related to the employment of persons with disabilities.
“For the Council of Europe, the National Barrier-Free Strategy is much more than a policy document. It reflects the principles at the heart of our Organisation and enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter. These are dignity, equality, social inclusion and the right of every person to participate fully in society,” she said.
During the meeting, participants also reviewed the progress in implementing the Action Plan for 2025–2026 and the decisions adopted at previous meetings of the Barrier-Free Council. In particular, ministries have implemented 627 of the 1,263 planned measures, representing 50%. Central executive authorities and institutions – 138 out of 247 planned achieving 56%. Regional military administrations and the city of Kyiv have implemented 3,486 out of more than 5,300 measures, representing 65%.
The meeting identified the areas, measures and indicators where efforts need to be accelerated by the end of 2026.
The Council of Europe continues to systematically support the implementation of the National Strategy for Creating a Barrier-Free Space in Ukraine until 2030, in line with the priorities of the Council of Europe project “Strengthening the Social Dimension in Ukraine”, implemented under the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023–2026.
