The European Union's partnership with six countries on its eastern border, including Ukraine, should receive significantly more money in the next decade, the European Committee of the Regions said on 5 December in a set of recommendations that also called for the EU to work harder to extend the benefits of cooperation beyond national capitals. Among the many other specific proposals are a call for the creation of an academy to train civil servants in local and regional government and more support for local cross-border projects.

On 4 December, the President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Karl-Heinz Lambertz, will deliver his third "The State of the European Union: the View of Regions and Cities" speech, during a debate with European Parliament President, David Sassoli. The speech, which comes as the CoR marks its 25th anniversary, will set our regions and cities expectations for the new EU mandate. The CoR's members will also discuss how to strengthen social rights with the new EU Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, and adopt their position on the European Green Deal, following a debate with Executive Vice-President, Frans Timmermans.

The mayor of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine told members of the European Committee of the Regions on 14 November that the city government has managed to transform public perceptions of his administration despite immense pressures created by the arrival of 100,000 Ukrainians displaced by the conflict the east of the country.

The European Union should deepen relations with neighbours on its eastern borders through more localised and targeted engagement, local and regional leaders from the EU and its partner countries have said. In two separate reports adopted on 12 September, they advised the EU to increase its support for small cross-border projects designed to increase community contacts and to establish a public-administration academy for local and regional civil servants from the six Eastern Partnership countries: Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.