FINAL DECLARATION

of the Conference on Regionalisation in Ukraine

3 April  2008, Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine

We, the participants in the Conference on Regionalisation in Ukraine, would like to thank the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction of Ukraine, the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the Congress of  Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the Ukrainian Delegation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the Foundation for Local Self-Government of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Association of Local and Regional Authorities, the Centre of Research on Issues of Regional and Local Development and Support to Administrative Reform and the Swiss Co-operation Office in Ukraine for organising this event.

I. Having regard to:

·              Recommendation 102 (2001) of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe on local and regional democracy in Ukraine, which sets out guiding principles for the transformation of the local self-government system and calls on the Ukrainian authorities to proceed with the relevant measures, amd Resolution 244 (2007) on “Principles governing regional democracy: proposals and strategy”;

·              Resolutions 146 (2002) and 161 (2003) and Recommendation 156 (2004) on the draft Council of Europe Convention on Regional Democracy;

·              The recommendations of the International Colloquy on Regionalisation in Ukraine (3 and 4 December 2003), the Conference "Reform of Public Administration and Territorial Structure: National and International Experience" (20 and 21 October 2005), the enlarged meeting of the Task Force on Regionalisation in Ukraine (3 and 4 December 2005) and the international Seminar on Regionalisation in Ukraine (5 and 6 March 2007), organised by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and its Chamber of Regions in co-operation with the Ukrainian authorities;

·              The results of the activities of the Working Group on the preparation of the new concept of state regional policy in Ukraine, set up by a decree issued by the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers on 30 January 2008;

·              The preparation of a new draft of a European Charter for Regional Democracy which will be presented at the Plenary Session of the Congress in May 2008;

·              The suggestions made by representatives of local and regional authorities of Ukraine and their associations concerning the further development of regional democracy in Ukraine;

·              The European Strategy on innovation and good governance at local level proposed at the Valencia Ministerial Conference and adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

II. The participants underlined:

1.           The need to finalise work on the preparation of the new concept of state regional policy in Ukraine in accordance with the recommendations of the Council of Europe, international and Ukrainian experts and representatives of local authorities and their associations, as well as the preparation, on the basis of this policy, of the new draft law on regionalisation in Ukraine;

2.           The importance of working simultaneously on the preparation of the new concept of state regional policy, the concept of the development of local self-government in Ukraine, the concept of territorial administrative reform and the national training strategy for regional and local authorities;

3.           The need to finalise the new Council of Europe legal instrument aimed at defining a general framework for regional democracy at European level;

4.           The importance of developing self-government at sub-national (rayon and oblast) level in Ukraine in order to establish self-governing authorities at this level with effective rights and the power (within the framework of national law) to administer a significant proportion of public affairs through their own executive bodies, in conformity with the European Charter of Local Self-Government ;

5.           The urgent need to reform the territorial structure of public administration in Ukraine in order to enable state, regional and local authorities to function effectively in order to take full advantage of the European integration processes;

6.           The importance of the Ukrainian Government's decision to set up a Ministry of Regional Development and Construction and the need further to strengthen the institutional capacity to implement regional development policy in Ukraine, including by establishing regional branches of the Ministry;

7.           The importance of further developing cross-border and interregional co-operation activities as one of the main priorities of Ukraine's European integration policy, and of including a separate chapter on cross-border and interregional co-operation in the new instrument governing co-operation between Ukraine and the EU;

8.           The importance of the new pan-European campaign "European Local Democracy Week", launched by the Council of Europe to promote citizens' involvement in public life at local and regional levels, to be organised at the end of each year, around 15 October, date when the European Charter on Local Self-Government was signed in 1985.

III. The participants concluded by:

1.           Welcoming the draft concept of state regional policy prepared by the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction in co-operation with the working group set up by a Ukrainian Government decree on 30 January 2008;

2.           Inviting the President of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers to reinforce internal co-operation over the elaboration of a common approach to local self-government reform and territorial administrative reform, with the objective of implementing the new regional policy and adopting new legislation on the basis of that policy;

3.           Inviting the Bureau of the Chamber of Regions of the Council of Europe Congress to examine and take appropriate action on the proposals made at the Seminar, i.e. adopt the new terms of reference for the work of the Task Force on regionalisation in Ukraine;

4.           Welcoming the Ukrainian authorities' initiative in organising an international conference on the theme of transfrontier co-operation and the development of the Dnieper Euroregion in Chernigiv on 30 June and 1 July 2008;

5.           Welcoming the Council of Europe's initiative in setting up a new Euroregion in the Black Sea basin and recommending finalisation of the documents setting out the Statute of the Euroregion in accordance with the results of the conferences held in 2006 and 2007 in Constanza (Romania), Samsun (Turkey) and Odessa (Ukraine);

6.           Inviting the Ukrainian authorities to continue co-operating with the Council of Europe, and in particular with its Parliamentary Assembly and its Congress of Local and Regional Authorities over the further implementation in Ukraine of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities and the two Protocols to it and other Council of Europe legal instruments concerning local and regional democracy;

7.           Inviting the Council of Europe (i.e. the Centre of Expertise for Local Government reform) to provide relevant assistance to the Ukrainian authorities with the preparation and implementation of the new strategy on state regional policy in Ukraine and the new framework law on regional development in Ukraine;

8.           Inviting the European Commission and the Council of Europe to set in motion the new joint programme designed to strengthen local and regional democracy in Ukraine;

9.           Inviting the Council of Europe to consider the possibility of organising in 2009 in Ukraine a European conference for representatives of national associations of local and regional authorities in order to share experience and disseminate best practices with a view to the organisation of the pan-European campaign "European Local Democracy Week";

10.      Inviting the Ukrainian Delegation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities to support the adoption of the Draft European Charter on Regional Democracy as a step towards a future adoption by the Committee of Minister of a European Convention on this issue.

IV. The participants are convinced that:

The new state regional policy in Ukraine, combined with the decentralisation of government authority and the enhancement of the organisational, legal and financial powers of regional and local authorities, should become a genuine instrument for the rapid development of the country and for ensuring its unity, and for guaranteeing a high standard of living and securing people's rights and freedoms, regardless of where they live, in application of the principle of subsidiarity.