“Decentralisation is key for democracy. And Ukraine’s decentralisation reform is a great example of local authorities serving the people while withstanding the unprecedented consequences of the ongoing war. The whole world has witnessed this since 2022. The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities will provide further support to Ukraine in the shaping  of this reform and the drawing up of a specific action plan to make it happen,” said Claudia Luciani, Director of the Congress opening the consultation meeting with Ukrainian stakeholders in Poltava on 19 September 2025. 

The discussion was focused on revamping Ukraine’s Decentralisation Reform Concept in view of the current wartime challenges and the EU integration process. The meeting brought together over 210 representatives of local authorities, regional state administrations, civil society and academia from ten regions: Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kyiv, Luhansk, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Cherkasy and Chernihiv.   

The Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance at the Congress is supporting Ukraine’s Ministry for the Development of Communities to carry out these public consultations in a broad, transparent and inclusive manner. The Ministry launched this process in August by publishing the updated Concept draft and holding the first regional consultation meeting in Odesa in September.

Public consultations will continue. In addition to collecting written feedback on the draft document from all interested parties, the Ministry will hold another meeting in Lviv on 2 October.

The government plans to adopt the updated Concept before the end of the year.

The event was organised within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023-2026 and the project “Strengthening multilevel governance and local democracy to support Ukraine's recovery”, implemented by the Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.