On 19 February, the Lviv Local Government Development Centre, established with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, welcomed Christian Danielsson, Director-General of DG NEAR (Neigbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations) of the European Commission, Peter Wagner, Head of the Support Group for Ukraine (part of this Directorate), and Berend de Groot, Head of Cooperation of the EU Delegation to Ukraine.

The roundtable meeting was held with the heads, deputy heads and employees of the Hnizdychivska, Novostrilyshchanska, Kamyanka-Buzka and Zabolotsivska amalgamated hromadas, with the participation of the representatives of the U-LEAD Western Hub and Lviv LGDC. During the discussion “Decentralisation Reform – Challenges and Achievements in the Lviv Region”, the participants discussed the obstacles faced by hromadas in the process of amalgamation and difficulties they encounter after amalgamation, as well as administrative services and functioning of the ASCs in the AHs .

According to Christian Danielsson, Ukraine is moving extremely fast along its reform path and is solving the problems emerging in the process of AH establishment quite effectively. In his opinion, such meetings provide an opportunity to hear success stories at first hand.

Taras Baranetskyi, acting director of the Lviv LGDC, noted that out of 35 hromadas of the oblast already amalgamated, nobody regretted they had chosen the path of voluntary reform, because the hromada is an opportunity for local residents to solve their own needs and dispose of their own funds. This year, the LGDC sets itself the task of accelerating the process of voluntary amalgamation in the Lviv Oblast and working more with potential hromadas.