Congress work highly appreciated by Ukrainian mayors and councillors
04.03.2016 - The contributions of the Congress and of the Council of Europe in supporting Ukraine in strengthening democracy, human rights and the rule of law is very appreciated by mayors, councillors and young local leaders, who are the main beneficiaries of Congress activities in Ukraine. This was the main message Congress Secretary General Andreas Kiefer received during his mission to Kyiv, Vinnitsyia and Kharkiv from 1 – 4 March 2016. Mayors and presidents of regional councils asked to organise peer to peer seminars with Congress members from other countries to learn from good practice.
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Meeting of the Association of local authorities of the Kharkiv region
Meeting with Volodymyr Prokopiv, Chairman of Kyiv City Council |
Meeting with Hanna Starikova, President of the Kyiv Regional Council
Serhiy Chernov, President of the Kharkiv Regional Council and president of association of regional and district councils of Kharkiv |
The Congress implements the local and regional dimension of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine which is funded by financial contributions of several member states. In addition to addressing a conference on fighting corruption of mayors and councillors, organised by Hanna Starikova, President of the Kyiv Regional Council, in Kyiv and a workshop “Mayors – leaders for change” organised by the Congress in Vinnitsyia, the Congress Secretary General met with the presidents of the regional councils of Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsya and Kharkiv, as well as of municipal councils of Vinnytsya and Kyiv. They expressed high interest in organizing training sessions for regional and municipal councillors, 60% of which were elected for their first mandate in October 2015 and therefore feel a need for training and ask for an exchange of experiences with their peers from other countries.
With Vitali Klytchko, Chairman of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, Mayor of Kyiv and Olexiy Reznikov, Deputy Mayor of Kyiv and Head of Ukrainian delegation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Volodymyr Prokopiv, Chairman of Kyiv City Council and leaders of political groups he agreed to organise a series of workshops for Kyiv city councillors. The first one is planned for 15 April on distribution of powers at the level of councils of capital cities, local self-governments models in capital cities, cooperation and interaction between civil society organisations and the municipal council and transparency and ethical standards in local self-governments.
The programme in Kharkiv comprised a speech at the meeting of the association of local authorities of the Kharkiv region, meetings with Serhiy Chernov, President of the Kharkiv Regional Council, president of association of regional and district councils of Kharkiv, Congress member, with Hennadiy Kernes, Mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, Deputy Mayor and Svitlana Gorbunova, Deputy Mayor, and a visit of a modular camp for internally displaced persons set up by the city of Kharkiv.
Kharkiv is a very young city, one third of the population are under 35 and the universities are vibrant places. It is the seat of the only Ukrainian university for Urban Economy with 12,000 students coming from all over Ukraine. In a solemn act Volodymyr M. Babayev, Rector of the O.M. Beketov National University for Urban Economy, conferred an honorary doctorate to Congress Secretary General Andreas Kiefer. This ceremony was followed by a very interactive discussion with students, who will work for municipalities, cities and regional authorities in the future.
Fight against corruption: Congress offers international expertise to Councillors of Kyiv Oblast
Ukrainian Mayors gathered in Vinnytsya to discuss ways to lead the change at the local level.