The first online meeting of heads of municipalities and their teams was recently held with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme. At the meeting, future partners discussed concrete steps for further establishment of close cooperation.

The municipalities will cooperate in the development of agriculture, process manufacturing, municipal services, culture, education, healthcare, housing and utilities, waste management and environmental protection, as well as exchange experiences and best practices in youth policies. They plan to participate in joint projects and grant programmes of the European Union for partner cities. This was announced by Oleh Stognii, Mayor of Romny.

“We intended to seek out partner municipalities in order to develop our territory and exchange experiences in various areas. We are sincerely grateful to the U-LEAD Programme for the opportunity to establish an international partnership and to our colleagues from the Italian comune for this opportunity to cooperate.”

During the meeting, the mayor of the comune of Monreale, Alberto Arcidiacono, offered to provide targeted assistance to the Romny muncipality in the near future to help internally displaced persons and further reaffirmed his interest in becoming a reliable partner for the municipality in the Sumy region.

According to Oleh Stognii, assistance to IDPs was initiated by Monreale counterparts and will be the first step of cooperation. The head of the municipality expressed his gratitude for such important support for Ukraine from European municipalities during the war. As part of this assistance, the provision of uninterruptible power sources, communication means, warm blankets, long shelf life foods, etc. is being considered.

According to Maryna Lobova, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Sumy region, international partnerships are an effective mechanism for the development of municipalities. At the same time, it can only be successful if both sides take a continuous proactive stance.

The partners are to sign a Memorandum of Cooperation in the near future.

On November 10, the first online meeting was held between representatives of the Fontanka municipality in Odesa and the Italian comune of Campofelice di Roccella. The meeting was organised by the Odesa Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe as part of the Bridges of Trust initiative.