President Petro Poroshenko stresses that Ukraine’s movement to Europe opens up new opportunities for amalgamated hromadas and access to the European resources for the territory development projects. He expressed this opinion during his speech at the meeting of the Regional Development Council in the Odesa Oblast.

“Hromadas clearly see how they should to develop their region,” the President noted.

At the same time, he noted that initially there were problems with the implementation of the law on decentralisation: “As it was an entirely new product unknown to people”. The President also stressed that it was extremely difficult at the beginning of the reform to find pioneers, who could implement it, to study the experience of Germany, Poland and the European Union as a whole.

“As soon as the first examples appeared, people saw that there was more money in the accounts of hromadas, and hromadas’ activity results improved. If AHs unite and use the new mechanism that we have laid down in the law, hromadas’ development is restored,” the Head of State said.

Petro Poroshenko also noted the importance of emergence of local initiatives: “It is important that hromadas themselves started proposing solutions to the problems. It is important that hromadas themselves become drivers of change. They already study foreign experience themselves. More and more hromadas amalgamate and develop in different rayons, villages and cities throughout Ukraine”.

At the same time, the President noted that financial and technical support remained the key issue in introducing changes on the ground. “Of course, one cannot avoid the question of where to take money for promising projects. First, hromadas have already received funds through decentralisation. Second, these are joint projects with the European Union. And I emphasise that if we do not fail, if we are united, if we continue our movement to Europe, the number of European projects will only increase,” he said.

“And this is an access not only to technical assistance, but also to huge financial resources,” Petro Poroshenko emphasised and drew example of Mariupol and some hromadas of the Odesa Oblast, where joint projects with the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are being implemented.

“Now, pursuant to my instructions, MinRegion will establish an advisory centre on access to international financial resources, and each AH head will have access to these resources,” the Head of State said.

“I am convinced that we will get huge benefits from our move to the European Union,” Petro Poroshenko stressed.

According to him, when we talk about Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO, the application for accession to the EU in 2023, we also mean EU’s support, experience of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. “We will make sure that you have access to the resources that we negotiate with our partners. There is not a single meeting with the EU leadership, where I do not raise the money topic,” he said.