Madam President,

I would like to sincerely thank you for your excellent presentation of the outcomes of the session of the Congress.

The Congress plays a significant role in defending our fundamental values – democracy, human rights and rule of law as a prominent watchdog on the local and regional levels.

It remains the source of initiatives and a guide for the development of local self-government.

We highly appreciate the current high level of cooperation and dialogue between Ukraine and the Congress.

Best practices and recommendations of the Congress have been implemented in the course of the successful decentralization reform process. This is our joint achievement, indeed.

We look forward to the visit to Ukraine of the High Level Delegation of the Congress which will allow us to summarize the outcome of our work, identify challenges and jointly draw prospects of future cooperation. 

Madam President, as you mentioned the issue of harmonization in your presentation, allow me to comment on this matter, too. So far, Ukraine has not supported the idea of harmonization. We thoroughly examine this ambitious idea and its possible far-reaching implications on the work of the Council of Europe. We believe however that should such harmonization be launched, the Congress and probably some other bodies of the Council of Europe should be part of it.

Having this said, we wish you all the best in your future endeavors. You can count on Ukraine’s support.