The ongoing large-scale military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, launched in February 2022, drastically affected democratic governance in Ukraine at all levels, including the well-advanced process of decentralisation reform.

What are the key challenges to the local self-government system identified by the Ukrainian national authorities? How the authorities plan to address them in the long-term perspective? What additional measures are necessary to alleviate the existing problems? Are the solutions proposed compliant with the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government?

To address these and many other questions and in response to a request of the Specialised Local Self-Government Parliamentary Committee, the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance of the Council of Europe prepared the Policy Advice on the Roadmap for Local Self-Government Recovery from the Consequences of the War (CEGG/PAD(2022)3 of 30 June 2022).

This comprehensive Roadmap was designed by the National Council for Recovery under the President of Ukraine, and it covers a large number of areas of social and economic life. It contains a specific subchapter dedicated to local self-government development, meant to achieve a list of four key reform objectives.

The Policy Advice was prepared within the Council of Europe Programme “Enhancing decentralisation and public administration reform in Ukraine”. Its recommendations will be further implemented within the joint initiative on “Good democratic governance in Ukraine: moving forward in a post-war context” launched on 29 June 2022 by the Council of Europe and its national partners in Ukraine: Specialised Local Self-Government Parliamentary Committee, Ministry for Communities and Territories Development, and the Central Election Commission.