The Council of Europe Centre of Expertise for Good Governance has been supporting Ukraine in development of metropolitan governance for more than two years. Among other issues, lack of an adequate legal framework remains one of the factors hindering sustainable progress in this area.
On 26 February 2021, in response to the initiative of the Specialised Parliamentary Committee on Local Government, the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance co-organised a high-level round table discussion on this topic, in the context of its Programme “Enhancing decentralisation and public administration reform in Ukraine”. It was the first meeting of its kind with the active participation of diverse groups of national stakeholders, such as MPs, the deputy Minister for Regional Development, regional elected and appointed authorities, experts and the leadership of local authorities from the so-called “Kyiv Agglomeration” area. About 15 village, settlement and city mayors and senior officials took part in the event, including Kyiv City Mayor Vitaliy Klychko. The participants discussed the way forward to improve the national legislation and agreed that the Specialised Parliamentary Committee should serve as a platform for finding solutions.
The Centre of Expertise for Good Governance will remain an active contributor to the process providing its international and local expertise.
Background
Over the past two years, the Council of Europe Programme in Ukraine has carried out a number of activities, studies and surveys on metropolitan governance, in particular:
- International Peer Review with participation of senior experts and officials from metropolitan areas of Hamburg, Warsaw, Turin and London; it resulted in the Peer Review Report “Democratic governance in metropolitan areas, focusing on Kyiv Region”, in which it described, why this issue is of national scope and its full resolution is beyond the powers of local government (held in co-operation with the European Committee on Democracy and Governance (CDDG);
- Training on leadership development and cooperation for mayors and senior officials of communities from Kyiv metropolitan area;
- A number of thematic consultations and questionnaires in communities dedicated to specific joint infrastructure projects;
- Legal expertise of the draft law on agglomerations;
- Sociological survey among residents of “Kyiv Agglomeration” – the Kyiv sub-region and Kyiv City – on attitudes towards metropolitan governance;
- and much more.
Mr Oleksandr KORNIYENKO, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Subcommittee on State Power, State and Local Government Service, State Symbols and Awards, Parliamentary Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development, Mr Vitaliy BEZHIN, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Subcommittee on administrative and territorial structure, Parliamentary Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development, Mr Andriy KLOCHKO, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development.
Mr Dmytro HURIN, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Subcommittee on Local Self-Government and Bodies of Self-Organisation of Population, Parliamentary Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development
Ms Olena LYTVYNENKO, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine
