A third and final regional public consultation on the updated Decentralisation Reform Concept was organised in Lviv on 2 October 2025 by Ukraine’s Ministry for Development of Communities, with support from the Congress. This completed the process launched in August 2025 when the Ministry published the revised Concept draft.

“This Concept is a philosophical document. The war and the EU integration process changed the conditions for implementing the decentralisation reform, but not its genuine goal and objectives. We highly value policy advice and consultation from the Council of Europe in designing this long-term vision,” emphasised Oleksiy Riabykin, Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, addressing the meeting.

For her part, Congress Director Claudia Luciani noted that the Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance at the Congress will continue supporting this work, including at the next stage of elaborating a dedicated Action Plan.

The discussion on 2 October brought together more than 140 participants representing local authorities and their associations, regional state administrations, civil society and academia from 9 regions: Volyn, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernivtsi.

Following the public consultations and before submitting the document for the Government’s adoption, the Ministry will present a finalised draft in Kyiv on 10 October.

This and previous consultations (in Odesa and in Poltava on 12 and 19 September) were 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.