In the framework of PLATFORMA, NALAS, in cooperation with Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC) conducted the Eastern Partnership Coordination Seminar: “Ukraine, A new political framework for Ukrainian local and regional governments”. The Seminar brought together representatives from the national and local governments together with AUC, its peers from Georgia and Moldova, EU delegation in Ukraine and Ukraine’s development partners.

The main objective of the event was to monitor and follow up decentralisation and administrative reforms; develop political dialogue between local governments, AUC, the national government and European institutions; identify decentralised cooperation and funding opportunities as well as to develop a national advocacy plan.

The Seminar provided also an excellent opportunity to exchange good practices between EU, NALAS and Ukraine. NALAS presented the NALAS’ flagship initiative, the Regional Decentralization Observatory, as a monitoring tool that emphasizes progress but also the challenges, opportunities and next steps for improving the multifaceted dimensions of decentralization reform, and helps supporting the advocacy efforts of Local Government Associations for more consistent and informed decentralization reforms. Additionally, NALAS also presented the Fiscal Decentralization Report, that is produced on an annual basis to help inform policymaking.

Additionally, the seminar was helpful to prepare messages and recommendations at the attention of the European institutions: the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Committee of the Regions and Permanent Representations of Member States with the final objective to strongly defend the voice of local and regional governments at the next Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in the second half of 2020.

Within PLATFORMA, NALAS is the Coordinator of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Cluster. In the coming months NALAS, together with the respective Local Government Associations will conduct Coordination Seminars also in Georgia and Ukraine. NALAS will also drive PLATFORMA’s efforts to strengthen the institutional capacities of AUC and the other Local Government Associations from the Region.