The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the report on the Implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, in which decentralization was recognized as one of the most successful reforms. This is reported by the government portal.
The document refers to the progress achieved in the area of reforms and the implementation of the Agreement, as well as recommendations for further areas of cooperation.
"The European Parliament welcomes the achievements of the reform on decentralisation and the empowerment of municipalities initiated in 2014, which has proven to be one of the most successful reforms so far; acknowledges the support of the U-LEAD project, resulting in the formation of almost 1 000 voluntarily amalgamated local communities with around 11.7 million citizens; assesses positively the steps taken so far with a view to decentralising public authority and public finances through a package of legal acts and their practical implementation; calls on the Commission to study the details of the decentralisation reform closely and to potentially use it as a successful case study for other countries," the document says.
As we reported earlier, the European Parliament approved the resolution on fulfillment by Ukraine of the Association Agreement, criticizing Ukraine for corruption that slows down reform, absence of the political will to provide the independence of the judicial institutions.
“Despite notable progress, widespread corruption continues to hamper Ukraine’s reform process; the continued constitutional crisis put at risk the ability of the president and the Verkhovna Rada to hold reforms,” the report says.
