The Council of Europe has been implementing electoral cooperation projects in Ukraine since 2015. Particularly, there were:

• project on “Reform of the electoral practice in Ukraine” implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2015 – 2017;
• project on “Supporting transparency, inclusiveness and integrity of electoral practice in Ukraine” implemented in three phases within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine for 2018 – 2022.

On 14 December 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe at its session adopted new Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023 – 2026, within the framework of which implementation of next electoral cooperation project on “Supporting democratic post-war elections in Ukraine” is foreseen.

The 2022 Russian full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine led to tremendous and unprecedented consequences to Ukraine: people’s lives, economy and infrastructure, including challenges for democratic processes to follow in a post-war period. Therefore, the Project is aimed at supporting the Ukrainian authorities and civil society to prepare to the first post-war national and local elections in order they are rendered as democratic and in line with international and European standards.  

This Action Plan for Ukraine, as well as previous similar documents, is a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and Ukrainian authorities. It is aimed at provision of all necessary support to Ukraine and Ukrainian People in the reconstruction and recovery process during and after the war, but also further strengthening and enhancing the resilience of Ukrainian democratic institutions and processes, democratic governance and rule of law, as well as protection of fundamental human rights.

The overall objective of the project :

Post-war national and local elections in Ukraine are democratic and held in line with international and European electoral standards and good practices.

The Project activities are intended to enhance and contribute to:

• organisation and conduct of post-war national and local elections in secure and level-playing environment in line with European electoral standards and good practices;
• re-integration of Ukrainian voters on and from de-occupied territories into political life of Ukraine by exercising their electoral rights within and beyond Ukraine;
• participation of Ukrainian voters in elections within and beyond Ukraine in accordance with established electoral and voting procedures;
• balanced participation of women and men in post-war political and electoral processes.

Throughout the implementation of the electoral cooperation projects in Ukraine, the Council of Europe cooperated with many different organisations and institutions. 

The key partners and beneficiaries of the ongoing project are:

• Ukrainian Parliamentary Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development;
• Central Election Commission of Ukraine.

• supporting multilateral dialogue to reach the consensus on elaboration of necessary legal framework and improvement of current national legislation on issues related to ensuring of active and passive suffrage in post-war period;
• contributing to the reconstruction and renewal of democratic pre-requisites for organisation and conduct of post-war elections;
• supporting organisation and administration of post-war national and local elections in line with European electoral standards and good practices;
• facilitating peer-to-peer exchanges and practice sharing with regard to organisation and conduct of elections in the Council of Europe member States;
• supporting electoral justice with the purpose of improving the effectiveness of mechanisms for citizens’ electoral rights protection;
• supporting public oversight and independent monitoring of the various cycles and aspects of electoral process, in particular, through the development of monitoring methodology and support of its implementation;
• promoting gender equality and enhancing balanced representation of women and men in politics, being one of the priorities of the Council of Europe Gender Equality Strategy 2018 – 2023, by means of supporting legislative action, enhancing women’s capacity to participate in post-war political and electoral processes, as well as holding awareness raising activities among the representatives of the authorities and the public;
• raising legal and political culture and awareness of electoral process participations about war-related challenges for the first post-war elections, respective electoral procedures and electoral process in order to ensure democratic post-war elections and to strengthen citizens’ trust towards election results.