On May 30, 2008 in Khmelnytskyi city the training on the theme “Practical aspects of Eurointegration: Visegrad Group countries experience for Ukrainian cities” was conducted. The event was carried out by Institute of Society Transformation (IST) together with Khmelnytskyi National University in the frameworks of the project “Development of cities by the way of Eurointegration: Visegrad Group countries experience for Ukraine”, supporting by the International Visegrad Fund (IVF).
Objectives of the training
- To define issues and advantages of Ukraine and EU cooperation at the national and local level.
- To study the experience of reforms and Eurointegration of the Visegrad Group countries.
- To learn the methods of Visegrad Groups cities adaptation to EU requirements.
- To get acquaintance with European municipal management practices for their implementation in Ukrainian cities.
Participants of the event:
Chiefs of Khmelnytskyi regional and city authority, city mayors and representatives of city municipal councils from Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsya, Chernivci and Ternopil regions, representatives of Institute of Society Transformation, Institute of International Relations of Kyiv National University, Atlantic Council of Ukraine, academic staff of Khmelnytskyi National University, Khmelnytskyi University of Management and Law, Khmelnytskyi Economic University, Khmelnytskyi Institute of Economics and Entrepreneurship, regional mass-media.
Training review
Official opening part
First speaker was Dr. Oleh Soskin, Institute of Society Transformation Director. He congratulated participants and told about the project “Development of cities by the way of Eurointegration: Visegrad Group countries experience for Ukraine” that is being realized jointly by IST and the International Visegrad Fund.
Mr. Soskin made a brief presentation of the manual “EU and local self-government: Visegrad Group cities experience and Ukrainian prospect”. It was published by IST in the frameworks of the project with the purpose of trainings for local authority effective conducting.
Characterizing present relations between EU and Ukraine, professor Soskin stated that the term of 10-year Treaty about Partnership and Cooperation between EU and Ukraine had ended in March 2008, thus the new one is not signed yet. At the same time, the new Treaty has all conditions to open wider opportunities of financing and cooperation before Ukraine. And after jointing to Shengen area such a countries-neighbors of Ukraine as Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, the EU border became unite and closer than ever to Ukraine. Nowadays EU is a population of about 500 million persons and GDP that in 2007 has exceeded GDP of USA. Already the third part of product turnover Ukraine has with EU countries.
Ukrainian local self-government directly represents communities interests, Dr. Soskin said, and should not only observe the processes taken place, but to participate in them actively. EU is uncontestable future of Ukraine and its well-being, and when EU programs will start to work wider for our state, local authority has to be able to adopt such operational help – to have professional staff and instruments for work at EU level. Local self-government can and should consciously integrate to EU and to learn how to use international cooperation advantages – the experience of Visegrad Group countries approved this undoubtedly, underlined Mr. Oleh Soskin. He also informed city mayors about joint initiative of IST and Mr. Urban Rusnak, Ambassador of Slovak Republic in Ukraine, concerning the group of partnerships between Ukrainian and Slovak cities creation with the opportunity of future training by the twinning type of Ukrainian city councils staff at their Slovak partner municipalities. The main objective of such programs is to teach staff of Eurointegration Departments from Ukraine how to work with international projects and to realize fundraising for municipalities.
Ending his speech, Mr. Soskin expressed conviction that experience of Visegrad Group cities is very valuable for Ukraine.
Mr. Serhiy Melnyk, Khmelnytskyi city Mayor, greeted event participants and told about the best practices of international cooperation of city and region. He said that international projects and proper fundraising can help to decrease the pressure at local budget and to realize initiatives at social services programs.
Mr. Serhiy Flentin, Deputy Director of External Relations and International Economics Department of Khmelnytskyi Regional State Administration, said that the training on Eurointegration for local authority was on time. EU and Ukraine became closer to each other and signing of the Treaty about the area of free trade will be a very important step in that direction.
Mr. Flentin told about real programs of EU in which Ukrainian regions participate. Odesa and Zakarpattya regions have huge experience in trans-border cooperation. The Treaty of cooperation between Romania, Moldavia and Ukraine is under signing. Ternopil and Khmelnytskyi regions will participate in this program. Nowadays from EU funds micro-projects for regional districts (rayons) are available (Khmelnytskyi region districts participate). These are projects for 8 000 euro on conditions of co-financing.
Mr. Flentin stressed the attention that active position of local city authority for international cooperation is extremely important, and another serious question is increasing of English language usage in municipalities.
Dr. Mykhaylo Voynarenko, Prorector on Scientific-Pedagogical Work of Khmelnytskyi National University, congratulated participants f practical workshop and told that University is a large scientific centre where 350 professors work and 15 000 students study. It is said that University is already in NATO, as there the Centre on former Ukrainian officers retraining and social adaptation functions for many years. Mr. Voynarenko underlined the importance of practical activities on international cooperation and Eurointegration for the success of the state. And the University does them continuously, working with Tasis, OECD, “NATO-Ukraine: Partnership for Peace” programs.
Dr. Voynarenko also told about activities of University Ukrainian-Polish centre and plans of IST and KNU to set a regional centre of Euro-Atlantic integration on the base of University.
Mrs. Anar Rusnakova, Coordinator of the International Visegrad Fund in Ukraine, made a report on the theme: “Regional policy of Slovak Republic and integration in European structures”. The process of Slovak Eurointegration, power decentralization, self-government strengthening and main purposes of EU regional policy were presented. Mrs. Rusnakova also told about unified system of all European countries administrative-territorial division classification NUTS (The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) that works since 1998.
Training
During the training leading Ukrainian experts told to participants about the main aspects of cooperation between Ukraine and EU, activities in Euroregions, Visegrad Group work and its support for Ukraine, methods of effective international projects development and their realization, Eurointegration Departments at the city level forming and concrete measures that they should realize (citizens informing, international cooperation, fundraising). Training consisted of theoretical and practical parts, active forms of communications were provided, exchange of opinions, discussion.
Key questions on which training attention was concentrated:
². About European Union
What is EU?
EU – a world player
How does EU work?
EU’s history milestones
How does the budget of European Union forms?
Trade relations of EU as a factor of regional economic growth
Main European values
²². Ukraine – European Union
European choice of Ukraine
Ukraine – EU: chronology of bilateral relations
Treaty about the partnership and cooperation between Ukraine and European Union
Action plan Ukraine – EU
Ukraine – European Union: successful trade partnership
EU’s enlargement impact
EU – the biggest donor of Ukraine
Regional politics of Ukraine – EU relations
Conformity of Ukraine to EU’s economic
Main requirements for EU accession
Administrative reform as the condition of membership
Advantages and problems of international process for Ukraine
Tasks for the Government of Ukraine in the short-term perspective
²²². Visegrad Group – „preparation class” for EU accession
Together into the European structures
Reasons of creation and tasks of V4
Visegrad Group development
Internal structure of V4
International Visegrad Fund (²VF)
Visegrad Group and Ukraine
IV. Programs of European Union
Main groups of EU programs
Programs of technical support of EU
Presence and future of INTERREG programs
Program of neighborhood Hungary – Slovakia – Ukraine
Programs of technical support of EU in which Ukraine participates
EU funds of support exploitation: integrated experience of V4 countries
Structural Funds of European Union
Ukraine’s access to Structural Funds of EU
Financial cooperation of EU and Ukraine in year 2007
V. Opportunities of local powers financing from EU funds: experience of V4 countries
Bodies of local self-government in the system of EU financing
Facilitation of access to EU finances
General principles of support exploitation
Well-designed projects: how should they be developed?
Projects estimating
Financing from the Structural Funds of EU: example of Polish regions
Financing from the Structural Funds of EU: example of Slovak cities
V². Bureaus of the European Integration in the Visegrad cities
Types and tasks of Bureaus
Structure and directions of Bureaus of the European Integration activities
Mechanism of creating and structure Bureaus of the European Funds
Directions of Bureaus of the European Funds activities
Sphere of investment projects preparing and coordinating
Practice of development and functioning of Bureaus of the European Funds (cities examples)
Experience of PPP-projects realization in Czech Republic: alliance of business and local authority
General recommendations for Ukraine
Practicum:
- Mechanisms of Eurointegration Bureau and EU informational centre creation at city level
- Functional responsibilities of person, responsible for Eurointegrational dimension
- Topics of international projects for local authorities: choosing the best
- Preparing of project schedule and control of its implementation
- Work in focus-groups (4 groups)
Topic: Procedure of international projects application by the local authority bodies – from one side, and their approving (or not) by the European structures – by the other side. Argumentation of decisions in accordance with procedures and standards of EU.
Discussion:
City mayors and representatives of city councils from different regions of Ukraine told about work they made concerning Eurointegration. All showed readiness to cooperate with Visegrad Group cities and to nominate persons, responsible for Eurointegration, in their city councils.
Press-centre of IST
Nadia Matviychuk, Project Manager |
[version for printing]