A delegation of the Congress of local and regional authorities, chaired by Gudrun MOSLER-TÖRNSTRÖM, President of the Congress, is carrying out a high-level visit to Ukraine from 20 to 22 November 2017. The delegation is composed of Gunn Marit HELGESEN (Norway, EPP/CCE), President of the Chamber of Regions, Yuliya SVITLYCHNA (Ukraine, ILDG), Vice-President of the Congress, Leendert VERBEEK (Netherlands, SOC), President of the Monitoring Committee and Marc COOLS (Belgium, ILDG), rapporteur on local democracy in Ukraine. The aim of the visit is to take stock of the development in the field of local self-government and decentralisation reform since the signature of a Roadmap between the Ukrainian national authorities and the Congress in 2015.

On 21 November, high level meetings are scheduled in Kyiv with government representatives, in particular with Volodymyr GROYSMAN, Prime Minister of Ukraine and Hennadii ZUBKO, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Regional Development, Building and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine. The delegation will also meet with Andriy PARUBIY, Speaker of the Parliament of Ukraine as well as Vitali KLITSCHKO, Mayor of Kyiv, and Mustafa DZHEMILEV, Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for the Affairs of Crimean Tatars.

On 22 November, a roundtable “Strengthening local and regional democracy in Ukraine”, organised within the project “Promoting local democracy in Ukraine” and the Council of Europe Action Plan 2015 - 2017 for Ukraine, will bring together members of the Ukrainian national delegation to the Congress and representatives of national associations of Ukraine to hold an exchange of views on the recent developments in the implementation of the Congress Roadmap in the context of post-monitoring dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities.