European Committee of the Regions at Kyiv summit for cities and regions

A clear division of powers, locally sensitive planning, and greater administrative capacity are now – together with stronger air defences – among the priority issues for Ukraine's reconstruction, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) said a​t a summit in Kyiv of leaders of regions and cities. 

Speaking on Europe Day, the CoR's representative – Patrick Molinoz, vice-president of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region – emphasised Ukraine's future in the European Union, urged local and regional politicians to put pressure on national governments to strengthen Ukraine's defences, and called for more municipal- and regional-level partnerships between Ukraine and the EU. 

Mr Molinoz, who chairs the CoR's commission dealing with external affairs, was representing the CoR at the second International Summit of Cities and Regions, convened by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The summit, held on 9 May, considered how Ukrainian cities and regions can help victims of the war, house internally displaced people, set about reconstruction of infrastructure, and prepare their administrations to adopt EU regulations and absorb EU funds. 

The summit comes weeks before the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, the annual centrepiece of efforts to mobilise and coordinate international support for the recovery, reconstruction, reform, and modernisation of Ukraine. 

Mr Molinoz said that substantial economic and technical support for regional and local authorities in Ukraine is now assured until 2027, by the creation of the EU's Ukraine Facility. Key political, policy and practical challenges now, he suggested, are to clearly define the responsibilities of different levels of government in Ukraine, to ensure that Ukraine's recovery plans are more clearly tailored to the needs and capacities of local and regional self-government, and to build up municipalities' and regions' capacity to manage EU funds. He also emphasised the importance of further strengthening the tools to fight corruption. 

He added that "Ukraine urgently needs air-defence systems to resist the ruthless attacks by Russia and we urge all colleagues from cities and regions in the EU to use their influence towards their national governments to provide this life-saving assistance". 

His messages reflected recommendations presented in March to the co-organisers of the Ukraine Recovery Conference – the Ukrainian and German governments – by the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine. The European Committee of the Regions is a co-founder of the Alliance and serves as its secretariat. 

Establishing a framework of the EU's support for Ukraine's recovery – the Ukraine Facility – that takes into account the needs and challenges of local and regional authorities has been a focus of the political work of the Alliance since its creation in mid-2022. The Facility, which came into force in February 2024, promises €50 billion in aid to Ukraine by the end of 2027. The EU says the Facility should support decentralisation and local development and give an important role to local authorities in Ukraine's recovery, reconstruction and modernisation. 

Members of the Alliance include territorial associations from Ukraine and the EU, individual regions and cities, and a range of private and public organisations, including the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, whose president, Marc Cools, also gave a keynote speech at the Summit. 

During his visit to Kyiv, Mr Molinoz also held meetings with the presidents of two Ukrainian territorial associations that are members of the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine: Vitaliy Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv and president of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, and Tetiana Yehorova-Lutsenko, head of the Kharkiv Regional Council, president of the All-Ukrainian Association of the District and Regional Councils, and new co-president of the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership created by the CoR. 

Andres Jaadla (EE/Renew Europe), member of Rakvere City Council and the CoR's rapporteur on housing, also attended the summit. Both Mr Jaadla and Mr Molinoz had an opportunity to visit projects near Kyiv that provide temporary accommodation for people displaced by the war. 

Quotes: 

Patrick Molinoz (FR/PES), vice-president of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region and chair of the CoR's Commission for. Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs (CIVEX): "Ukraine must win the peace! Today's Summit is taking place on Europe Day, which celebrates peace and unity in Europe. The EU is standing by Ukraine and will do so to win the peace. Here in Kyiv, it is terribly clear that Ukraine urgently needs air-defence systems. With enhanced security, Ukraine's cities and regions will be in a position to re-build and re-develop. The European Committee of the Regions is happy and proud that our concrete suggestions for the EU's €50 billion support package for Ukraine were accepted. Ukraine's regional and local authorities will now benefit from significant financial and technical support. Municipal and regional partnerships will accelerate and enrich Ukraine's recovery efforts." 

Andres Jaadla (EE/Renew Europe), member of Rakvere City Council and the CoR's rapporteur on housing: “It is impressive to see the efforts that Ukraine is making to accommodate internally displaced people who neither have the possibility to stay with relatives or to rent apartments. The type of pre-fabricated housing that I have seen – plus renovation of existing housing stock with prefabricated panels – can be done quickly, create jobs, and provide good-quality housing. Modular homes helped a generation of Europeans after the Second World War. Let's help Ukraine scale up its work." 

More information: 

The International Summit of Cities and Regions was held in Kyiv, Ukraine on 9 May 2024. It was organised by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine. The Congress is an advisory body. The themes were: achievements, challenges, and prospects of Ukraine's European integration; the recovery and development of Ukraine's cities and regions during the war and in the post-war period; the humanitarian challenge of supporting internally displaced persons; and the medical, psychological, and social rehabilitation of victims of the war.

Photos available on Flickr or on request. Video material is also available on request.

Recommendations to the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2024 for a decentralised recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine: Full text of the declaration by the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine in English, Ukrainian, German, and French.

European Committee of the Regions opinion, "Enlargement package 2023 – Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia" (rapporteur: Antje Grotheer (DE/PES), president of Bremen City Parliament).   

Contact:

Andrew Gardner

Tel: +32 473 843 981

andrew.gardner@cor.europa.eu