Belgium (Brussels, Morning Newspaper) The leader of an EU body has pledged its “full support and solidarity” to Ukraine. The President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Vasco Alves Cordeiro spoke after he met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
Cordeiro was taking part in the International Summit of Regions and Cities, convened by the Ukrainian authorities, to debate the role of local and regional authorities to support Ukraine’s reconstruction.
In his meeting with President Zelenskyy, the CoR chief the CoR’s “full support and solidarity towards the Ukrainian people, who have been facing a brutal and unjustified war for more than a year, and the continued support that local and regional authorities of the EU have provided, and will continue to provide, until Ukraine can live in peace and freedom”.
The President of the CoR also stated: “I am here in Ukraine also to stress the commitment of the EU´s local and regional authorities to the Ukrainian people. It is also a duty for us to be here, because this war is our war. Ukrainians are paying the highest price to defend our common European project.
“The European Committee of the Regions is committed to supporting Ukraine, to strengthening the capacity of its local and regional authorities and to preparing them for negotiations and for EU accession.”
In the meeting, Cordeiro also presented President Zelenskyy the work of the Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, as well as the CoR’s package of support for Ukrainian local and regional authorities.
This focuses on immediate support on the one hand, and on capacity-building on the other hand (including offering capacity-building programmes to Ukrainian local and regional officials, providing office space to Ukrainian local and regional representatives on the premises of the CoR, and enlarging the CoR’s programme for young elected politicians to young leaders from Ukraine).
Cordeiro said, “The International Summit of Cities and Regions is an opportunity to further discuss the reconstruction of Ukraine and how our local and regional authorities can support this endeavour. Strengthening local democracy and pursuing an effective decentralisation reform will be a key success factor for the implementation of the reconstruction. Ukrainians are paying the highest price to defend our common European project. Cities and regions in the whole of Europe support them and continue to stand in solidarity, no matter what it takes or how long it takes.”
The estimated costs of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine are now put at €383 billion, according to the government of Ukraine, the World Bank, the European Commission, and the United Nations.
The International Summit of Cities and Regions included mayors and regional governors from around the world, members of the Ukrainian government, and representatives of Ukrainian civil society, business, and think-tanks. In addition to President Zelenskyy, Ukrainian speakers included Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal, Deputy Prime Minister for Reconstruction Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Federov, whose responsibilities include innovation, education, science and technology, and Ukraine’s digital transformation, and Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories.
