Decentralisation: “Congress will support Ukraine in the crucial phase and welcomes the commitments to proceed from advice to implementation of the reform” stated Andreas Kiefer

Strasbourg, 14 September 2016 - The Secretary General of the Congress, Andreas Kiefer, met Deputy Minister Maksym Malashkin, Ministry of regional development, and Sergiy Vlasenko, Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on state building, regional policy and local self-government of the Parliament of Ukraine and a delegation of the chairpersons of the respective subcommittees at the Palais de l’Europe in Strasbourg, on 14 September, in the framework of the project “Decentralisation and territorial consolidation in Ukraine”.

The Congress Secretary General recalled the fruitful political dialogue established between the Congress and the Ukrainian national authorities, which led to the signing of a roadmap for implementation of the decentralisation reform, in May 2015. In light of this, he stressed the crucial need for the Ukranian Parliament to take the necessary decisions to implement the reform without further delay. Andreas Kiefer also reiterated Congress’ interest and support for Ukraine and the ongoing constitutional and decentralisation reform process in the country. “Times have changed and today Ukraine proceeds from receiving advice to implementing the reforms it has decided to undertake. I am very happy that this was the clear message I received during my visit to Ukraine in August and most recently from Foreign-Minister Pavlo Klimkin during his visit to Strasbourg last week”, he concluded.

Andreas Kiefer welcomed the active Ukrainian presence in the Congress with Natalya Romanova and Sergyi Chernov and some rapporteurs, recalling that several members of the Verhovna Rada used to be Congress members, among them the Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.

More information

-      Website of the Congress – File “Congress and Ukraine”

-      Website of the Council of Europe office in Kyiv – also available in Ukrainian