Overview   Ukraine

The international community has now clearly recognised that local government will be key to Ukraine's reconstruction and recovery, leaders of the European Committee of the Regions said at the Ukraine Recovery Conference on 12 June, welcoming the Conference's focus on local challenges and the creation of a coalition to support Ukrainian municipalities and regions.

A clear division of powers, locally sensitive planning, and greater administrative capacity are now – together with stronger air defences – among the priority issues for Ukraine's reconstruction, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) said at a summit in Kyiv of leaders of regions and cities.

The 9th Enlargement Day, the annual flagship event on EU enlargement policy dialogue and experience sharing organised by the European Committee of the Regions, will be held on 29-30 April 2024.

To encourage more cities and regions to join the Summer Camps for Ukrainian children' initiative this year, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC) will be hosting an online informative session on 24 April from 10:30 to 12:00 (CET).

The European Committee of the Regions has called on the European Union to be ready to provide additional long-term funding to support Ukraine's recovery from the war, in an opinion that backs the start of membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova.

The European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine on 19 March called for a decentralised approach to Ukraine's reconstruction and recovery, with Ukraine's regional and local authorities being given "intensive" support to enable them to play a "meaningful" role in the process.

The European Summit of Regions and Cities is the largest gathering organised by the European Committee of the Regions for local and regional elected representatives to meet, share and have their say on what is happening in the European Union and its future. If you are one of the 1,2 million locally and regionally elected representatives or you are involved in the life and future of your community, this is your place to be!

24 February 2024 marks the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The following statements were made by the President of the European Committee of the Regions, the chair of its Working Group on Ukraine, and its rapporteur on the EU's newly approved support package, the Ukraine Facility.

The European Committee of the Regions has hailed the European Council's decision to approve a €50 billion package of support for Ukraine as "a stepping stone towards Ukraine's accession to the EU".

The EER 2025 Info Day, organised as a hybrid event on 23 January 2024 at 10 a.m. CET, aims to address regions awarded with the EER label as well as candidate cities and regions in preparing their EER application.

The European Committee of the Regions has welcomed the European Council's decision to open membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova, and to grant candidate status to Georgia and, subject to further reforms, to Bosnia and Herzegovin

Gdańsk pledges €220,000 to support Lviv's rehabilitation efforts during a visit by a delegation from the European Committee of the Regions. Representatives of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) have travelled to Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine, to see how see how cities and regions in the EU can help Ukrainian local and regional governments with their emergency needs, with reconstruction and with EU-related reforms.

The European Union's main funding tool for Ukraine should be expanded and be more focused on building up the capacity of Ukraine's local and regional authorities, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) says in a set of recommendations that also call for the support plan for Ukraine to use the EU's own regional-development policy as a building block.

The European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine has been progressively taking shape and bringing partners together since its launch on 30 June 2022. This meeting will gather, for the second time, the political leadership of the founding partners in order to debate the recent Alliance-related events, the current political aspects of Ukraine's steps towards EU accession, and the strategic outlook for the second half of 2023.

The President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Vasco Alves Cordeiro, met on 20 April with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, in the context of his participation in the International Summit of Regions and Cities, convened by the Ukrainian authorities, to debate the role of local and regional authorities to support Ukraine's reconstruction.

High-level delegation from European Committee of the Regions in Kyiv to step up cooperation between the EU's and Ukraine's cities and regions on reconstruction. At the International Summit of Cities and Regions in Kyiv on 20 April, the European Committee of the Regions called for local democracy and good governance to be foundation stones of Ukraine's reconstruction.

Once a year, the Secretary General of the European Committee of the Regions submits to the Plenary Assembly a report on the impact of the work of the CoR over the past calendar year.

War in Ukraine has reinforced case for the EU to tailor cooperation to match the different priorities of the EU's neighbours to the east, European Committee of the Regions argues.

Ukraine's president and the country's national, local and regional leaders can count on the enduring support of cities and regions in the European Union, the President of the European Committee of the Regions, Vasco Alves Cordeiro, told Ukraine's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities on 4 March. President Cordeiro stressed the importance of Ukraine's local and regional governments to the reconstruction of Ukraine, suggesting that they could be in the "vanguard of development" in Ukraine.