A new modern Administrative Service Centre, which can be considered one of the most energy efficient administrative buildings in Ukraine, was opened in the Mykolayivska AH of the Sumy Oblast on 27 March, with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme. The Centre was built from scratch during less than 5 months using modern energy efficient technologies. Almost 100 types of the most indispensable administrative services in the AH became available for 10 thousand hromada members.

The new Centre was established according to the European standards of high-quality administrative services and energy efficiency. The U-LEAD with Europe Programme provided assistance in modern design development, construction, institution establishment of the ASC, as well as provision of equipment with specialised software to the hromada. For its part, the hromada provided a new building with connection to the networks, and purchased the furniture.

Plenty of technological solutions were used in the ASC of the Mykolayivska AH, which allowed the building to reach one of the highest energy efficiency classes. Energy-saving properties of the walls of the premises, constructed of SIP panels with additional insulation, are equivalent to a 2-metre brick wall. The combination of air / water heat pump with underfloor heating provides the highest energy efficiency of the system, and the recovery technology uses up to 95% of warm air. With a combination of green technologies and environmentally friendly materials, the hromada can save 4 times more on heating and ventilation than the conventional building structures do.

Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, said: "The opening of the new ASC is the introduction of European standards of work with the population and a radical change in the centre – regions relations. The Soviet legacy of hours-consuming queues in providing services is finally coming to an end. Decentralisation creates a reverse vector, where primacy belongs to hromadas and people. I am grateful to the international partners for supporting the decentralisation reform in our country. I am convinced that, with high-quality self-government, we will be able to change every Ukrainian's life for better. Through joint work, we will achieve the highest results."

Kameran Khudur, First Secretary of the Embassy of Sweden to Ukraine, SIDA Programme Director of U-LEAD, noted: "I am very glad and proud that the fruitful cooperation between Sweden and Ukraine within the framework of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme financed by the EU tax payers and its member states Sweden, Germany, Poland, Denmark and Estonia, has led to establishment of the ASC in Mykolayivka, built using modern solutions that meet the EU environmental standards. I am convinced that more than 10 000 Mykolayivka residents, for whom we have created this ASC, will be provided with the high-quality services they are entitled to."

Ivan Ihnatyev, head of the Mykilayivska AH, said: "Our hromada has gained a great opportunity due to the international partners, and now the residents will receive high-quality administrative services in a new energy-efficient building. We are very glad that environmental materials and modern technologies have been used in construction, because this will allow our hromada to be in the forefront of development and positive changes. We will continue to implement progressive projects and improve the lives of the hromada residents. High-quality administrative services are just the beginning."

The ASC of the Mykolaivska AH has 7 workplaces for specialists, who have passed advanced training, specially developed by the Ukrainian and Swedish experts of the Programme. On the eve of the opening, the residents were informed about the features of the ASC work, its advantages, rights and obligations of employees and consumers of services. The Centre is accessible to people with disabilities and has a children’s indoor play corner.

It is worth reminding that 26 ASCs will be opened in Ukrainian amalgamated hromadas within the framework of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme which aims at improving the delivery of local administrative services. The best practices for creating and improving the delivery of administrative services that are tested and implemented in the pilot hromadas of the inception phase will be applied to all ASCs to be opened or modernised within the next phase of the Programme. That is at least 600 ASCs by the end of 2020.