Comité van de Regio's en Raad van Europa: Oekraïne heeft lokale en regionale overheden nodig voor democratische hervormingen (en)

Members of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the Congress of the Council of Europe were in agreement yesterday that Ukraine must take urgent steps to promote local and regional government autonomy if it is to achieve much needed democratic reform and deepen its integration towards the European Union. With only nine days to go before heads of states meet at the next summit on the EU’s Neighbourhood Policy in Vilnius, they stressed that Ukraine’s central government must put in place administrative and financial reform and address the worrying regional social and economic disparity across the country.

The two local and regional authority assemblies were speaking during a conference which reviewed the state of play of Ukraine's reform process. The meeting, which also attracted civil society representatives and Ukrainian authorities, was held shortly after the Congress published a report on the progress of local and regional democracy in Ukraine. István Sértő-Radics (HU/ALDE), Mayor of Uszka and CoR rapporteur on Ukraine, said that there were positive signs that Ukraine supported closer EU integration but there was a worrying lack of progression in dealing with problems related to governance. Ukraine will have to tackle its problems "with or without the association agreement" if it wants to close the prosperity gap with the rest of Europe.

Decentralisation still “remains patchy” but Mr. Sértő-Radics argued that promoting democracy and financial independence for local and regional authorities in Ukraine would help accelerate the reform process. The EU must support, “Administrative reform in favour of decentralisation which will also unlock regional potential and stimulate economic growth allowing for business climate improvement". He further stressed that, “a prosperous well-functioning Ukraine would be an attractive neighbour and partner for the EU and so is in the EU's own interest".

Pascal Mangin, the Congress’ rapporteur on regional democracy in Ukraine, reiterated this point adding, “You cannot have democracy without local democracy”. The Congress’ monitoring report proved that progress had been made though there was a need for further territorial reform for local and regional authorities. “Clearly it is our view that progress has been too slow and a gap has emerged showing the difference between intention and action. There has been ambivalence between the division to dissolve powers to local and regional authorities, and power of central government to let go of power. Local and regional authorities don’t have complete freedom to act”. Mangin noted that there was serious concern about the wide economic and social differences between regions and cities across Ukraine.

Marc Cools agreed adding that though Ukraine’s local and regional authorities are meant to have the right to autonomy, they had very limited financial resources and often local and regional authorities were led by members of Ukraine’s central state. Marc Cools, Congress rapporteur on local democracy in Ukraine, commented, “In our report we wish to enhance the financial economy, transparency and transfer of powers to elected represented bodies”. Though he welcomed Ukraine’s government suggestion that they would sign the European Charter of Local Self-Government which would strengthen and promote local government power, there was a “long process ahead” following the reform and local representatives must be given appropriate training and education to ensure they sufficiently manage their new roles.