“Lviv agglomeration will take its place amongst Ukrainian and European metropolitan areas playing a significant role in Ukraine’s economic recovery and Eurointegration”, reads the Vision section of the Strategy.
The Council of Europe within the Programme “Strengthening Good Democratic Governance and Resilience in Ukraine” contributed to the preparation of the Lviv Agglomeration Development Strategy until 2027. After 12 months of work, it was successfully completed and endorsed by the Steering Committee under the Lviv Regional Administration, which brings together the leaders of all 18 municipalities of this metropolitan area. The Committee also initiated establishment of the local self-government association “Lviv Agglomeration”.
Daniel POPESCU, Head of the Department of Democracy and Governance of the Council of Europe addressed the participants. He welcomed this important project in Ukraine and noted “Ultimately, metropolitan governance is about citizens and their wellbeing, not about authorities. We hope that this initiative will inspire co-operation in other metropolitan areas of Ukraine.”
The Strategy is built around three strategic goals focusing on (i) quality of life, (ii) cohesion and resilience and (iii) competitiveness. To reach these goals, a detailed Action plan and a set of inter-municipal co-operation projects were developed in the areas of transport and mobility; economy; ecology and municipal services; social and humanitarian services; and governance.
The process of elaboration of the Strategy was based on citizen participation approach. Specifically, 14 focus groups and over 30 meetings of project teams and working groups in communities took place, engaging civil society and charitable organisations, youth policy activists, and academia. In addition, the CEGG facilitated an open campaign to collect initiatives relating to inter-municipal co-operation projects (252 project ideas were pitched).
“The idea of Lviv Agglomeration is formulated already and now is the right time to join forces precisely for the sake of new opportunities”, underlined Oleh SERNIAK, Mayor of Pustomyty community.
The Centre of Expertise for Good Governance has co-ordinated the project on elaboration of the Lviv Agglomeration Development Strategy within its Programme “Strengthening Good Democratic Governance and Resilience in Ukraine” in partnership with Lviv Regional Military Administration and in co-operation with the Jerzy Regulski Foundation in Support of Local Democracy. This project was inspired by and put in effect in accordance with the Council of Europe toolkit on Strategic Municipal Planning.
