Next year, the stage of hromadas’ voluntary amalgamation is to be completed. And we must ensure that local elections are held on a new territorial basis and that a new system of functions of each authority is formed, said Alyona Babak, Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, at the meeting with Anka Feldhusen, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Georg Milbradt, Special Envoy of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Ukrainian reform in the areas of governance and decentralisation.

“Currently, there is a unique synergy of efforts of the President, the Government, the Parliament to move to a key stage of decentralisation and create an effective system of control over the legitimacy of local self-government decisions. Due to the systematic support of our international partners, we already have a proper basis for legislative regulation of this issue,” the Minister noted.

She also emphasised that the direction of cartographic modelling should be continued in order to create the most optimal model of the territorial structure of Ukraine. Given the importance of creating a capable public service network, this work direction is becoming even more important.

In addition, she said, the Regional Development Strategy 2020-2027 should be approved by December this year. “And here, we also expect strong expert support. The strategy should be a positive signal to the world of Ukraine’s vision of work on regional development: economic growth, social infrastructure development, strengthening of human potential.”

“There is a single goal to raise Ukraine's position in the human development rating. Ukraine's economic growth is not possible without strong hromadas, without regional development. We would like Ukrainians to have a decent life – this is our priority,” she stressed.

Alyona Babak thanked the German Government and the U-LEAD with Europe Programme for comprehensive support to the reform of local self-government and territorial organisation of power in Ukraine.

In turn, Georg Milbradt, Special Envoy of the German Government, stressed that Germany would continue to support decentralisation in Ukraine.