Long-term support and energy transition are emerging as central elements in the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine.
Local and regional politicians from across the political spectrum have voiced preliminary support for a fast-tracked set of recommendations intended to ensure that the regions and cities of the European Union can become deeply and effectively involved in the reconstruction of Ukraine. The rapporteur, Mayor of Florence
Daria Nardella
, said that "rebuilding is a re-birth" for Ukraine and that the EU's local and regional authorities "should be proud" to help this re-birth, a process that would include a sharp focus on helping Ukraine's transition to a greener and more sustainable economy.
The opinion on the
role of EU cities and regions in rebuilding Ukraine
will help shape the work of the
European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of
Ukraine
, created in June by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and
European associations representing local and regional administrations. The
Alliance itself was a response to a request by Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The opinion is scheduled for adoption on 11 October,
ensuring that the recommendations of cities and regions are crystallised in
time for an international conference devoted to Ukraine's reconstruction on
25 October and ahead of final decisions on the form of the European
Commission's emerging platform to coordinate support for Ukraine's
reconstruction.
Mayor Nardella (IT/PES), who is also president of Eurocities,
said
at meeting of the CoR's Commission for Citizenship, Governance,
Institutional and External Affair (CIVEX) on
28 September
that reconstruction of Ukraine's destroyed infrastructure "can serve as the
basis for the accession process of Ukraine" to the European Union and
should be underpinned by a focus on democratic principles, sustainability
and stable institutions as well as by sustained economic support to enable
reconstruction. The need for long-term support with Ukraine was a key
message that Mayor Nardella brought back to the EU from a meeting in August
with President Zelenskyy, who, he said, had expressed concern about the
"weariness factor".
Recommendations included in the draft opinion stress a preference for
grants – rather than loans – for Ukraine and a need for support to be
phased, with a first stage focused on emergency response, a second
dedicated to the restoration of critical infrastructure and services, and a
third phase to pave the way for long-term sustainable growth. Longer-term
support should particularly focus on reaching the objective set by the
Ukrainian government to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 65% by 2030 and
rebuilding social infrastructure – such as housing stock, schools, and
hospitals – in order to attract Ukrainian refugees and displaced persons
back to their pre-war homes. Ukraine's government has suggested that the
EU's regions and cities could contribute on the basis of twinning
partnerships with peers in Ukraine, a proposal backed by the CoR. The CoR's
draft opinion also highlights the potential value of broader investment
schemes to involve a larger group of cities and regions.
The recommendations drew in part on a
study
commissioned by the CoR in which researchers canvassed the views of local
and regional politicians from areas of Ukraine that have suffered varying
levels of damage. Its conclusions note substantially improved
administrative capacities at the local and regional level thanks to a
decentralisation process that began in the mid-2010s, and also highlighted
the potential for EU cities and regions to help capacity-building reforms,
particularly in smaller communities.
Support for reconstruction was also the central point of debate at a
meeting of the CoR's bureau on 16 September, which has attended by Vitaliy
Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, president of the Association of Ukrainian Cities
and the first honorary member of the CoR. At the meeting, the mayors of
Warsaw
and
Gdańsk
and the vice-president of
Bremen
State Parliament invoked their cities' experience of wholesale destruction
during the Second World War to highlight the knowledge that could be used
to help Ukraine.