The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe today called for support to Ukrainian local and regional authorities in exercising fully their competences to advance recovery and reconstruction in their communities.

In a resolution based on a report by Véronique Bertholle (France, SOC/G/PD) and Amelie Tarschys Ingre (Sweden, ILDG), debated during its 50^th session in Strasbourg, the Congress pointed out that Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction will require effective multilevel governance, with local and regional authorities taking a fundamental role, in line with their competencies, with the aim that the country “builds back better”, and with respect for European standards in human rights, democracy and the rule of law, in line with its progress towards membership of the European Union.

The resolution stressed that decentralisation reforms in Ukraine had played a crucial role in Ukraine’s wartime resilience, enabling its subnational authorities to respond to the unprecedented shocks and difficulties it faced, and urged the pursuit of these reforms to achieve greater efficiency through the clear division of competencies between tiers of government. The Congress called on the local and regional authorities of Council of Europe member States to recognise that Ukraine’s further recovery and reconstruction required empowering local and regional authorities to play their roles and to work with national authorities.

The Congress also emphasised that the Russian Federation must pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine’s regions, and that confiscated Russian assets, which were frozen worldwide, should be a source for such reconstruction efforts.

Presenting the report, the rapporteurs underlined that Ukraine’s local and regional authorities were at the forefront of both the impact and response to the Russian Federation’s ongoing and illegal war of aggression against their country, playing a leading role in ensuring recovery and reconstruction for the benefit of the communities they serve. That role will continue as the situation evolves and after peace finally comes, they said.