French region increases its support for sister region of Kharkhiv and for an association of Ukrainian regional and local administrations.
Grand Est has become the first EU region to enable Ukrainian administrations to use its representative offices in Brussels, describing it as a "logical and natural" form of support for "our Ukrainian friends".
The region of Kharkiv and the All-Ukrainian Association of the District and Regional Councils will now be able to use Grand Est's offices as a base from which to reach out to the EU's institutions for emergency aid and for longer-term support for recovery and reconstruction.
The region of Kharkiv, home to Ukraine's second-largest city, is already twinned with Grand Est. The All-Ukrainian Association of the District and Regional Councils represents 24 regional councils and 147 district councils.
The decision by Région Grand Est to offer space and other support follows the example provided by the European Committee of the Regions, which now hosts representatives of the cities of Lviv and Vinnytsia, the region of Dnipropetrovsk, and the Association of Ukrainian Cities and the All-Ukrainian Association of Communities.
Grand Est officially opened its doors to Kharkiv and to All-Ukrainian Association of the District and Regional Councils on 31 January, with Ukraine's deputy ambassador to the EU, a leading member of the European Parliament and senior representatives of the CoR present.
On behalf of Franck Leroy, President of Région Grand Est, Christian Debeve (FR/Renew Europe), who heads Région Grand Est's commission on cross-border issues, Europe and international relations, said that it was "logical and natural to open this cooperation and open the door and work closely with our Ukrainian friends". Mr Debeve, who is an alternate member of the European Committee of the Regions, said the Ukrainian administrations would also be able to use Grand Est's offices in France, especially in Strasbourg, seat of the European Parliament, and in Paris.
Tetyana Yehorova-Lutsenko, who heads the Kharkiv Regional Council as well as the All-Ukrainian Association of the District and Regional Councils, said: "This is the first office of the All-Ukrainian Association of District and Regional Councils outside Ukraine. It opens up new opportunities for European integration for the regions of Ukraine and illustrates in practice the readiness of Région Grand Est and the European Committee of the Regions to support our local self-governance. We will now have more opportunities for capacity-building, for the exchange of experience and best practice with our peers among cities, regions and communities in the EU."
The deputy head of Ukraine's mission to the EU, Serhiy Tereshko, said: "This is it is exactly what we are looking for in our cooperation with European partners, support provided not only on the national level, but also on the people's level. And regions, communities are much closer to people. They are kind of roots of this democratic support."
Michael Gahler, who shares responsibility in the European Parliament for shaping legislation on the EU's support package for Ukraine to 2027, said that the European Parliament was "especially focusing" on ensuring that regions and cities are involved in implementation of the EU-Ukraine plan. "We are institutionally for ringfencing a certain percentage of that money that should go to the subnational entities".
The decision by Région Grand Est was praised by Patrick Molinoz (FR/PES), vice-president of the neighbouring region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and chair of the CoR's Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs.
"Opening a representation here in Brussels is a way for your regions, for your association, to get used to try to learn the new grammar, the new way of working" as Ukraine prepares for EU membership, Mr Molinoz said.
Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, mayor of Gdańsk and chair of the CoR's Working Group on Ukraine, said: "I'm very, very grateful that step by step different parts of Europe are finding not only partners on the Ukrainian side, but we are working together. This everyday work on those issues that closest to the people is extremely important."
The CoR's offer of office space is part of the CoR's 10-point support package for Ukraine, which aims to prepare Ukraine for membership of the EU as well as to help Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction in the face of Russia's invasion. The CoR also serves as the secretariat of the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, which it co-founded in June 2022.