In the framework of the summing up the implementation of  the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2022 and  the preparation of the Action Plan for Ukraine 2023-2026, Verena Taylor, Director of the Office of the Directorate General of Programmes of the Council of Europe, Steen Nørlov, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine and Volodymyr Kebalo, Senior project officer, visited Lviv and Lviv region and met with partners of the project “Strengthening civil participation in democratic decision making in Ukraine”.

During the meeting with Maksym Kozytskyi, Head of the Lviv Regional State Administration and heads of the departments the interlocutors outlined key results of the implementation of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2018-2022 and further steps in the framework of preparation of the new Action Plan.

During the visit to the Lviv City Council, the representatives of the Council of Europe met with Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy. Decentralisation and local self-government reform, civil society development and civic engagement, gender equality and city youth policy, as well as further prospects for cooperation were the main issues discussed.

Council of Europe delegation visited the project partner municipality, Stryi: a meeting with Deputy Mayor Andriy Stasyv took place in the Stryi City Council. Stryi is among 4 municipalities of Lviv region supported by the project in implementing legal framework for participatory democracy and installing practices for citizen participation and engagement. Following the extensive expert technical support and policy advice, the project supported the participatory process around urban public space planning projects, delivered a series of awareness raising activities and Academy on Civil Participation. In 2022, the project plans to provide support in installation of the participatory budgeting and school participatory budgeting mechanism, further capacity-building and awareness-raising.

Also in Stryi, representatives of the Council of Europe met with the civil society - Ridnia Community Charitable Foundation. The representatives of the Foundation were engaged in the development of the legal framework for participatory democracy in Stryi and as a project partner NGO delivered awareness-raising trainings and workshops to local residents in 10 Starosta districts of Stryi city territorial community. The interlocutors discussed the importance of creating favorable conditions for the development of civil society, opportunities for the residents to express themselves during political discussions on important issues and decisions.

The visit to Lviv and Lviv region once again demonstrated that the participation of citizens is of vital importance as it increases public supervision of authorities and so ensures that the latter act in public interests. Today Lviv region is actively demonstrating best practices of civil participation in decision-making, which are valuable both for Ukrainian communities and for all Council of Europe Member States.