“Today is special day for me personally and for all those involved with local self-government. This is the day when the Concept of the decentralisation reform was approved five years ago at the Governmental meeting,” said Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.

“We, local self-government officials, were breaking through with this reform for so many years! Everything was in vain – we were not heard, we were even not listened to. On the contrary, Kyiv was increasingly taking over resources and powers, leaving crumbles to hromadas,” the Head of Government noted.

According to him, in 2014 he responded to the invitation to join the Government only because he saw a window of opportunities for the implementation of this reform, which he considered critical for the future of Ukraine. “And we benefited from this window of opportunities. In a month, the Government has approved the concept of the reform, introduced by me, and from the beginning of the year financing of hromadas’ development under the new principles, formation of AHs and transfer of powers to the ground began,” said Volodymyr Groysman.

He thanked everyone with whom the reform was launched, who contributed to convincing, overcoming, fighting for making the necessary decisions. “I thank those who believed and actively participated in its implementation on the ground. I thank my colleagues in the former and present Government, MPs, and the President for the joint efforts,” the Prime Minister noted.

The Head of Government also said that today it is possible to talk about the growth of local budgets, thousands of rebuilt and reconstructed objects in cities and villages throughout Ukraine.

“But the most important thing is not about the numbers, but about people seeing the opportunity to change the lives of their hromadas, about new initiatives being implemented on the ground to improve the quality of life of people, about the fact that today I meet bright-eyed hromada leaders everywhere. I cannot help but say that I was and I remain committed to this reform and I will do everything possible to bring it to a logical conclusion so that by 2020 all 100% of hromadas live within the conditions of decentralisation, so that its irreversibility is enshrined in the Constitution,” emphasised Volodymyr Groysman.