Reconstruction of Ukraine: MEPs want to ensure recovery of Ukraine's regions

Three MEPs of the Regional Development Committee met Ukrainian representatives in Kyiv to discuss Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction and country’s EU accession.

Better-targeted financial help and closer cooperation with Ukraine´s regions will be necessary to help reconstruction of the country following Russia’s aggression, say Regional Development MEPs who have returned from a four-day mission to the country´s capital.

Following meeting with member states’ diplomatic representatives in Kyiv, MEPs continued their discussion with the Chair of the Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development Olena Shulyak. They focused on the cohesion challenges and needs of Ukrainian regions, especially in the context of the twin green and digital transition. They also discussed division of competences in Ukraine when it comes to regional development and put emphasis on the necessity to build strong local and regional authorities. The role of cohesion in country’s territorial, social and economic development was discussed at the meeting with the representatives of the Economic Development Committee.

MEPs also touched upon the necessary reforms to be completed before country´s EU accession, including with Ukraine´s parliamentarians from the Integration Committee and Foreign Policy Committee. They further discussed how to support cooperation between the two parliaments on existing and upcoming projects in the context of reconstruction of Ukraine and country’s EU accession.

MEPs also talked about the need for strengthened rule of law and stressed the necessity to fight against corruption at their meeting with the representatives of the Anti Corruption Policy Committee of the Verkhovna Rada.

Given the importance of local and regional authorities as well as third sector actors in the development of the local and regional environments, MEPs met representatives of the National Association of Regional Development Agencies (NARDA), Association of the Ukrainian Cities, Association of Amalgamated Territorial Communities and Association of District and Regional Councils. They also exchanged views with civil society representatives from the CHESNO Movement.

Besides parliamentarians and local actors, delegation had the opportunity to discuss the role of decentralisation and multilevel governance in the current Ukrainian efforts with the representatives of the Office of the President of Ukraine and Minister for Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov.

Chair´s statement

Upon return, lead MEP and chair of the Regional Development Committee (REGI) Younous Omarjee (The Left, FR) said: “Although the attention today focuses on the Middle East, we were in Ukraine to tell the Ukrainian people that we are not turning away from Ukraine, from the war that continues to rage there and that our support is total. It will not weaken. We were there to support mobilization of the budgetary facility of 50 billion euros and implementation of the necessary reforms for Ukraine’s future EU accession. We have expressed our support for reinforced decentralization, transparency and the fight against corruption.”