Chernihiv and the Finnish city of Lappeenranta will sign a partnership agreement in early January 2023. Earlier, the Chernihiv City Council unanimously supported the cooperation, and the Finnish municipality also confirmed its intentions regarding cooperation.

This is reported by the official website of the Chernihiv City Council.

According to the reports, Vladyslav Atroshenko, Mayor of Chernihiv, previously held talks with Mayor Kimmo Jarva. They discussed directions of a future cooperation and agreed on the procedure for signing the Agreement.

Mayor Kimmo Jarva delivered a video message to Chernihiv deputies:

“Warm greetings from Lappeenranta, your new sister city. We are excited to start our partnership and expand cooperation in economic relations, academia, engineering and culture in the coming years. As the climate capital of Finland, environmental protection, education and tourism are important for us. We look forward to working with you, our new friends. In these challenging times, we will work together for a better future. We send you warm Christmas greetings and wish you a peaceful New Year.”

Earlier, the Chernihiv City Council approved the intention to establish a partnership with the German city of Aachen and the French city of Reims.

For reference. Lappeenranta is the climate capital of Finland and an international academic and tourist centre in the southeast of Finland. It is a pioneer in the field of renewable energy, science and education and has a population of about 72,000. Last year, it won the European award for small cities in recognition of its sustainable development efforts: 72% of all thermal energy production in the city currently comes from renewable sources. Lappeenranta also managed to reduce its CO2 emissions by 38% between 1990 and 2014.

In March, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine initiated the International Marathon of Local Self-Government aimed at drawing the attention of municipalities around the world to the tragedy of Ukrainian municipalities and boosting the process of establishing sisterly relations.

On 16 December, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine presented municipal tools for establishing partnerships with foreign municipalities, “Guidelines on International Municipal Partnership” created jointly by the Ministry, the Council of Europe Programme “Decentralisation and Public Administration Reform in Ukraine” and the electronic platform "Partnership for Restoration and Development" developed in cooperation with the Swiss-Ukrainian project “Decentralisation for Improved Democratic Education” (DECIDE) and U-LEAD with Europe Programme.

Municipalities can fill out an application for desired cooperation with a specific foreign municipality on the electronic platform by clicking Cooperate.