The Council of Europe presented an expert report assessing the impact of the decentralisation reform on national minorities in Ukraine in the selected regions – Chernivtsi, Odesa and Zakarpattya oblasts. The report was presented in December 2020.

The report on the Impact of the decentralisation reform on national minorities in Ukraine in the selected regions: Chernivtsi, Odesa and Zakarpattya oblasts was prepared by the experts of the Department of Democracy and Governance and the Anti-Discrimination Department of Directorate General of Democracy (DG II) of the Council of Europe within the framework of the Programme “Decentralisation and Local Government reform in Ukraine” and  project “Protecting national minorities, including Roma, and minority languages in Ukraine”.

The report is based on a variety of sources of empirical material collected and analysed in June – September 2020 such as general information on the progress of decentralisation reform in the country as well as a series of 39 semi-structured individual and group interviews conducted within the project in the three target regions. The research also includes data from the Council of Europe supported annual opinion surveys of the nation-wide random sample of citizens.

Various sources of information were used in preparing the report. Thus, general information on the progress of the "decentralisation of power" reform in Ukraine was analysed. The source of the analysis was also the results of the 2001 census, but as the census data are relatively old and do not fit into the scheme of the new territorial organisation, the Council of Europe organised the collection of additional data in the amalgamated communities of the three regions covered by the research.

The preparation of the report was accompanied by a Council of Europe information campaign “Diverse Roots – Shared Opportunities”, which reached more than 73,000 people.

The report contains several recommendations aiming at enabling meaningful civil participation of national minorities in decision-making at local level, namely:

• To monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of the decentralisation reform and promote best practices;
• To ensure clear division of powers and responsibilities between the state and local authorities as well as between different tiers of local government;
• To consider revision of legislation relating to local elections to ensure representation of all communities in local elected assemblies;
• To improve legal framework on sub-municipal units protecting identity and representing interests of small communities;
• To enhance financial and legal instruments to ensure availability and quality of education at schools teaching in minority languages;
• To strengthen legal framework on the protection of national minorities;
• To expand legal framework on participatory democracy, promote use of the existing relevant tools and enhance targeted capacity building and awareness raising interventions;
• To strengthen community involvement in local governance, in particular strengthening the voice of national minorities.

The presentation and discussion of the report was held online in December 2020, the media report is here https://www.coe.int/en/web/good-governance/photos-impact-of-the-decentralisation-reform-on-national-minorities-in-ukraine

Presentation by Sergiu CONSTANTIN, Senior Researcher, Eurac Research Institute for Minority Rights

Presentation by Pawel SWIANIEWICZ, Professor and Head of the Department of Local Development and Policy, University of Warsaw

The full version of the report is available on the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine website https://rm.coe.int/report-decentralisation-and-minorities-eng/1680a22354

The leaflet can be found here https://rm.coe.int/leaflet-eng-minorities/1680a2260d