EU's Ukraine Facility should provide stronger support for local and regional reforms

Recommendations call for more money and technical support for Ukraine's cities and regions, with survey showing large pool of political will in EU cities and regions to help.

The European Union's main funding tool for Ukraine should be expanded and be more focused on building up the capacity of Ukraine's local and regional authorities, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) says in a set of recommendations that also call for the support plan for Ukraine to use the EU's own regional-development policy as a building block.

The opinion on the planned Ukraine Facility, which the CoR adopted in a fast-track process on 11 October, particularly welcomes the recognition that Ukraine's cities and regions need to be meaningfully involved in the development, implementation and oversight of reconstruction and recovery projects. The CoR proposes a series of measures to strengthen the capacities of local authorities and also suggests that the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, an alliance that brings together Ukrainian and EU partners, could play a role in the Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform for Ukraine.

Dario Nardella (IT/PES), mayor of Florence and rapporteur on the Ukraine Facility, said: "Ukraine's reconstruction has to start now. The Facility should provide a stepping stone towards Ukraine's accession to the EU, and so it should incorporate as many of the fundamentals of the EU's regional policy as possible, including regional strategic planning. Since Ukraine's cities and regions should be involved at every stage of the reconstruction process, the EU should set aside more money for technical assistance and bring them into the governance structure of the Facility."

The CoR's opinion also argues that the Facility should be €60 billion, rather than €50 billion for the 2024-2027 period.

The recommendations on the Ukraine Facility were adopted after a broader discussion about Ukraine's reconstruction with partners in the Alliance. The debate was informed by a Eurobarometer poll – part of a broader survey commissioned by the CoR – that found that more than four in ten local and regional politicians (45%) believe that the EU cities and regions can contribute to Ukraine’s reconstruction in some way, via the wider European plan to help Ukraine’s recovery, through material and financial help, twinning programmes or through the exchange of best practice.

Vasco Alves Cordeiro, President of the European Committee of the Regions, said: "The sustainable reconstruction of Ukraine involves a wide range of fields, from stabilisation to the rehabilitation of infrastructure, domestic reforms and the prospect of the EU accession process. The Ukraine Facility will be key for channelling the EU's support to Ukraine in the coming years. In view of the next Ukraine Recovery Conference in Germany, it will be important to focus on involving all key stakeholders in the recovery process. Cities and regions are ready to support Ukraine's reconstruction by championing multilateral cooperation formats and providing practical support to Ukraine's local and regional authorities."

Leendert Verbeek, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe , welcomed the Ukraine Facility's alignment with the European Charter of Local Self Government and suggested that the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine could play a coordinating role within the EU's support plan. Calling for a return to decentralised governance "as the situation allows for transition from martial law", President Verbeek said: "Ukraine's cities and regions will play a crucial role in the construction of Ukraine. To do so, local and regional authorities need to be provided with means for action – namely with their own powers rather than only delegated powers."

In a video message, Oleksiy Kuleba, executive secretary of Ukraine's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and a deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Ukraine is "facing a difficult winter", adding: "We absolutely need your practical help."

Tetiana Yehorova-Lutsenko, President of the Ukrainian Association of District and Regional Councils, thanked the EU's cities and regions for standing "shoulder to shoulder" with Ukrainians and Ukraine's cities and regions. "We need it to continue, we need to continue with you", she said, calling for more partnerships at what she described as "a turning point for our country".

Andriy Sadovyi, mayor of Lviv, said that "every community" in Ukraine requires international support, and highlighted the support that cities and regions in Ukraine are providing each other. Lviv, which lies close to the border with Poland but which is frequently hit by Russian missiles, is currently hosting around 150,000 internally displaced people and has treated 15,000 casualties. He praised city-to-city partnerships, saying: "When one talks to a mayor, one sees a spark and movement." Calling for more cooperation, he emphasised that "we often need supervision and wise words".

The city of Lviv in May became the first Ukrainian administration to take up an offer from the CoR to use its offices in Brussels. On 12 October, the region of Dnipro will become the fourth administration to open an office in the CoR, joining the region of Vinnitsa and the Association of Ukrainian Communities as well as Lviv. Dnipro, Ukraine's fourth-largest city, is a major centre of engineering and heavy industry as well as an important transport hub.

Background:

• The debate can be re-watched on the website of the European Committee of the Regions.
• The EU's Ukraine Facility is a new financial instrument to provide coherent, predictable, and flexible support to Ukraine for the period 2024-2027. The proposal, which the European Commission in June 2023 and which has yet to be adopted, would provide grants, loans and technical support, and will establish an investment framework that is expected to mobilise public and private investments for Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction totalling €50 billion for the period from 2024 to 2027. It aims to support Ukraine's economic stability, recovery, and modernisation; facilitate the investments and reforms to smooth Ukraine's path towards EU accession; support the Ukrainian government in meeting the needs of its people, including through the provision of basic services, social support, and humanitarian assistance; and help Ukraine to 'build back better'. The Ukraine Facility proposal envisages a plan whose "preparation and implementation… shall be done in consultation with regional, local, urban and other public authorities, in accordance with the multi-level governance principle and taking into account a bottom-up approach" and which should support the economic, social, and environmental development of Ukraine's regions and municipalities, and decentralisation reform. The Ukraine Facility has three pillars, the third of which supports reforms and capacity-building to help Ukraine join the EU.
• The Eurobarometer survey forms part of the EU Annual Report on the State of Regions and Cities presented by Vasco Alves Cordeiro, President of the European Committee of the Regions, on 9 October. Findings include that more than four in ten respondents (45%) consider that regions and cities can contribute to the reconstruction of Ukraine by involving EU regions and cities in a wider European plan for the reconstruction of Ukraine, with specific contributions including financial and material support (31%), twinning programmes to strengthen technical and institutional capacity and exchange best practices (30%), and promoting good governance at local and regional level (27%). The survey also asked politicians about their administrations response to the large inflow of refugees from Ukraine since February 2022.
• The Ukraine Recovery Conference brings together governments, businesses, and civil society organisations to discuss and coordinate support for the reconstruction and economic and social recovery of Ukraine from the war. The first Ukraine Recovery Conference was held in Lugano, Switzerland, in July 2022; the second conference was held in London, UK, in June 2023.
• At the request of the Ukrainian government, the European Committee of the Regions in 2015 set up a Ukraine Task-Force to help accompany and advise on the country's process of decentralisation. In 2020, the Task-Force was replaced by a Working Group on Ukraine to provide political and technical support as well as to support decentralisation reforms. In March 2022, one of the leading members of the Working Group on Ukraine – Vitaliy Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv and president of Association of Ukrainian Cities – became the first honorary member of the CoR.
• Ukraine's municipalities have been heavily involved in EU-supported initiatives for many years prior Russia's to the Covenant of Mayors – East and Mayors for Economic Growth .

Contact:

Andrew Gardner

Tel. +32 473 843 981

andrew.gardner@cor.europa.eu