On 21 October, a new Administrative Service Centre and two remote workplaces of ASC administrators were opened in the Solonynska amalgamated hromada of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme. More than 30,000 hromada and rayon residents will be able to obtain 127 administrative services in a modern and comfortable environment.

The CNAP is located on the first floor of a two-storey building of the Solone City Council, which has undergone major repairs at the expense of the state subvention and hromada budget. The premises are equipped for the needs of people with disabilities and have a children's play corner. Next to the ASC, the hromada creates a leisure and recreation park.

Olena Lichmanenko, Deputy Director of the Economic Development Department of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State Administration, noted: “The opening of the ASC in Solone gives the start to the opening of ASCs, established with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, in the hromadas of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. This means that our oblast will be enriched with modern, European centres in which residents feel that authorities care about them. At present, the ASC network operating in the region is the largest and friendliest in Ukraine.”

The U-LEAD with Europe Programme assisted in the institutional establishment of the centre, furnishing and equipment of eleven workplaces at the ASC and two remote workplaces in starosta districts of the hromada. All employees have undergone advanced training courses developed by Ukrainian and Swedish experts.

Nadiya Bilenko, U-LEAD expert, said: “We are very pleased that the joint efforts of the local, central government and the international assistance programme will deliver quality administrative services to the residents of the Solonyanska hromada and rayon. We hope the new ASC will become a centre of European values and a platform for hromada development.”

Olena Tertyshna, Director of the Dnipropetrovsk Local Government Development Centre, noted: “The Solone Administrative Service Centre is a symbol of decentralisation, as it became the first in the region joint hromada-rayon ASC. The Centre's design, developed by the U-LEAD with Europe specialists, has allowed the hromada to create an open European space for administrative services that is comfortable for every residents, from children to adults.”

Mykhailo Kopeyko, head of the Solonyanska AH, outlined: “I am grateful to the international partners for their comprehensive support in establishment a proper ASC. We are confident that administrative services will now be provided with high quality and promptness, and that the Solone Centre will become the centre of hromada and rayon development.”

Within the Roll-Out Phase of U-LEAD with Europe Programme’s support to improved administrative service delivery, up to 600 ASCs will be established and modernised in the hromadas of Ukraine by the end of 2020.