During 3-4 June 2018 (in the framework of the opening of the Sustainable Energy Week in Chernivtsi), an influential delegation from the key executive institutions of the European Union visited the Chernivtsi Oblast. Peter M. Wagner, Head of the Support Group for Ukraine in the European Commission, and Johannes Baur, First Counsellor to the EU Delegation to Ukraine, Head of the Department for External Assistance Programmes, had a trip to the Volokivska amalgamated hromada.

The guests were accompanied by Mykhailo Pavlyuk, First Deputy Head of the Chernivtsi Oblast State Administration, Yuliya Hrytsku-Andriyesh, Manager of the Southwestern hub of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, and Tetyana Tatarchuk, Director of the Chernivtsi Local Government Development Centre.

The conversation with the AH leadership concerned the main results of the three-year work within the process of decentralisation and local self-government reform.

Mr Valentyn Hlopina, head of the Volokivska AH, told about the main achievements of the hromada and described the challenges and problems, emphasising that hromada’s residents actively involved in its infrastructure development and public life, are the key resource of the AH. The emigration of even one or two families is a big loss for the hromada, therefore its leadership creates all possible conditions for a comfortable living of the residents, for the development of local business.

Peter Wagner told about the decentralisation process in Germany, and noted that he is well aware of the difficulties faced by Ukraine. According to him, the reform of local self-government is the greatest success, and much more has been done over the past 4 years, than in the previous 20 ones – these successes are noticeable on the ground.