The twinning agreement between the cities of Varash, Rivne region, and Loviisa, Finland, was signed by their mayors, Oleksandr Menzul and Jan D. Oker-Blom, on March 7 in Poland, during the 8th European Congress of Local Self-Government.

“Thanks to this cooperation, Varash will harmoniously join the community of European NPP satellite cities, which together solve problematic issues and work towards development. I am positive that from now on, we will have one more reliable partner,” said Oleksandr Menzul.

Varash and Loviisa are nuclear satellite cities with a population of 41,000 and just under 15,000, respectively.

“The agreement between our cities signals our support for Ukraine. The agreement will facilitate political and economic cooperation related to nuclear energy as well as cooperation in the matters of democracy, education and administration,” said Jan D. Oker-Blom, Mayor of Loviisa, the municipality’s official website reports. 

The agreement also defines key areas of cooperation such as the recovery of Ukraine and supporting Ukrainians living in Loviisa.

Earlier, Andriy Sadovyi, Mayor of Lviv, urged heads of municipalities to redouble their efforts to establish partnerships with foreign municipalities, which, in his opinion, would strengthen the capacity of Ukraine.

Decentralization reminds that municipalities of Ukraine can use the International Municipal Partnership Guidelines to build communication with foreign municipalities and enter into twinning agreements. These Guidelines offer algorithms and practical advice on establishing a partnership, cases of successful partnerships, practical advice on customs clearance and accounting of various types of assistance that partners can exchange, information on how to choose partners, how to organise the work of competent professionals or division, as well as information on financing, bookkeeping and reporting and a lot of other useful information.

Based on these Guidelines, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine developed the Partnership for Recovery and Development section of the Decentralization national portal, with the support of DECIDE (Decentralisation for Improved Democratic Education), a Swiss-Ukrainian project, and the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.

These Guidelines are based on the methodology of the Council of Europe, City to City Cooperation, and developed by the Council of Europe as part of the Programme “Decentralisation and Public Administration Reform in Ukraine” at the request of the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine.