On 7 November 2023, the Council of Europe joined the “Decentralisation Reform: Roadmap” conference organised by the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine.
During the event, the draft Roadmap for further implementation of the reform prepared by the Ministry was presented.
The conference brought together representatives of the Ukrainian Government, Parliament, Presidential Office, local authorities and their associations, diplomatic missions, international technical assistance projects, expert community and civil society organisations. Participants discussed strengthening the resilience of communities, in particular their financial capacity, local economic development, defining the goals of regional policy and the needs of local self-government in the context of planning post-war recovery, as well as digitalisation and future of decentralisation in the context of the European integration priorities of Ukraine.
“Local self-government reform, decentralisation, and strengthening good multi-level governance are among the key priorities under the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023-2026. We welcome commitment of Ukrainian authorities to implement the decentralisation reform further. The Council of Europe has a long history of cooperation and support in this area, that we will continue throughout the process of finalising this reform,” stated Erlend Falch, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian decentralisation reform has been one of the most successful reforms in Europe and has led to the creation of bigger, stronger and more resilient local authorities, which proved to be pivotal for Ukraine in resisting the full-fledged Russian invasion. Currently, the Council of Europe promotes decentralisation reform in Ukraine within its Programme “Strengthening Good Democratic Governance and Resilience in Ukraine”.
Remarkably, that the decentralisation enjoyed high popular support which even increased after the invasion of the Russian Federation of Ukraine: in the end of 2022, 3 out of 4 respondents (76.5%) believed that the decentralisation reform should be continued.
Participants of the conference agreed that the decentralisation reform’s further objective is to ensure effective functioning of the system of local self-government in Ukraine in accordance with European standards and best practices and providing high-quality public services to people under martial law and during the post-war recovery period.
