Context
Since 2016, municipalities have received new policy and fiscal competences. Following the outbreak of the war of aggression, municipalities must perform new tasks. A particular challenge is working in a wartime environment under martial law, which imposes operational constraints, including depressed local incomes and highly reduced staffing. Municipalities play an important role in the resilience of Ukraine’s political and societal systems and are essential to local reconstruction efforts. Moreover, municipalities need to advance decentralisation and prepare for accession to the European Union (EU). This requires active intervention and support at the local level and must also be accompanied by necessary reforms, which require robust policy and legal advice also in the context of EU integration.
Objective
The actors at the national, regional, and local levels are increasingly effective in fulfilling their tasks in the course of decentralisation and reconstruction and in the context of EU integration.
Approach
The project supports Ukraine on its path to EU membership. It works in the following fields:
Reform: Legal advice to Government of Ukraine to advance decentralisation reform and align regional policy with EU acquis.
Recovery: Strengthening capacities of municipal officials for strong local self-governments in the context of Ukraine's accession to the EU.
Reconstruction: Support municipal administrations to implement regional and local development policies and reconstruction planning in the context of the EU accession. Support municipal partnerships between Ua and EU through Bridges of Trust.