Brussels, 09/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 8 October, the president of the Committee of the Regions, Michel Lebrun, and the deputy prime minister of Ukraine for regional development, Volodymyr Groysman, agreed on the launch of a Committee of the Regions working group to support the reform process in Ukraine.
The group will work on subjects such as the excessive centralisation of the system, the financial dependence on the central government and the limited financial resources, the weak administrative capacity, corruption, and the lack of citizen involvement.
“A territorial dimension of the European neighbourhood policy is needed and we will work jointly with the Committee of the Regions to collect practices of administrative and fiscal decentralisation used throughout the EU”, Groysman stated. “We need decentralisation reforms and more territorial and cross-border cooperation”, said Lebrun. “Decentralisation is not just a legislative or administrative exercise. It can provide a major stimulus for successful national reforms, paving the way for economic, political and social development, and to stability”, he added.
Elsewhere on 9 October, the European Parliament constituted its election observation delegation to Ukraine on 26 October. This will comprise 15 MEPs and will be led by Andrej Plenkovic, the chair of the Parliament delegation to the EU-Ukraine parliamentary cooperation committee. (CG)