“Last year we met in a small hall, where there was still a free space, and now in this rather large hall there is no place to swing a cat,” told Oksana Harnets, head of the Swiss-Ukrainian project "Decentralisation Support in Ukraine” (DESPRO), at the general meeting of the Association of Amalgamated Hromadas. “The Association is now a powerful driving force of the reform, a leader listening to both public authorities and international donor structures.”

This year's meeting of the Association was special due to the fact that a number of memorandums with the key partners were signed. In addition to DESPRO, the memorandums were signed with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR), the Ukrainian Association of Rayon and Oblast Councils, the All-Ukrainian Association of Village and Settlement Councils and the Legal Development Network. The Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Government and the U-LEAD with Europe Programme also informed about the intention to sign similar documents.

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