The Swedish-Ukrainian forum, which is organized by the Cities4cities|United4Ukraine project in the framework of cooperation between the Institute of the City of the Lviv City Council and the Swedish Association of Local and Regional Authorities SALAR, began its work and is held on June 19-20. Mayors and their deputies from 11 Ukrainian municipalities are meeting their potential partners in Sweden for the first time.

The Ukrainian cities at the forum also include the recently de-occupied city of Kherson, the cities of Bila Tserkva, Kalush, Slobozhanske, Slavuta, Konotop, Zelenodolsk and Melitopol, which is still under occupation. Most of the Ukrainian communities represented at the forum have been seriously affected by the war – they were under russian occupation, suffered massive destruction of social and critical infrastructure due to missile attacks, hosted internally displaced persons and provided physical and psychological support to people with war traumas.

“Very few Swedish communities had a partner in Ukraine until today. We presented this idea to Swedish municipalities just a few months ago in Stockholm. Instantly, after that, we received a lot of requests to make friends with a Ukrainian community. Today there are 11 partnerships, but we are still receiving more and more requests from Sweden,” says Svitlana Blinova, manager of the Сities4cities|United4Ukraine project.

Some of the communities, such as Slobozhanske and Vannas, have already come to a joint decision to sign a letter of intent for the development of long-term cooperation and share experience in the development of STEM education, household waste management and local economic development.

“The ultimate goal of the forum is not to sign official documents, but to develop specific actions to express solidarity with Ukraine and support the recovery process. This, first of all, concerns the support of expertise in urban planning because we want to help Ukraine to be rebuilt better in accordance with the best European and Swedish practices,” says Magnus Liljeström, senior advisor of SALAR International.

Marta Suprun, an expert on international cooperation at Cities4cities|United4Ukraine, says that such partnerships open the door to European programs communities can apply to and receive support from.

Andrii Plakhotniuk, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Sweden, said that it is important that every Swedish city could find a partner in Ukraine. It is necessary to work at various levels of cooperation, including at the level of businesses, to strengthen the economy. For example, Swedish company IKEA has already re-opened its production facilities to Ukraine. Municipalities can stimulate the recovery and development of economic ties being so important today for reconstruction.

Swedish association SALAR is currently negotiating with the Swedish government program SIDA to expand cooperation between Sweden and Ukraine to support reconstruction. This was announced by Ryan Knox, executive director of SALAR International.

If you are looking for a partner municipality in Europe, contact the Сities4cities|United4Ukraine team. We establish connections between Ukrainian communities and European municipalities to build strong partnerships and support Ukraine’s aspirations for EU membership and post-war recovery.

Cities 4 Cities | United 4 Ukraine – partnership initiatives that joined their efforts in September 2022. The Cities 4 Cities platform was founded by the city of Sindelfingen (Germany) under the auspices of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. United 4 Ukraine was launched by SALAR International and the city of Lviv (Ukraine) with the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida).

Written by: Marta Suprun, expert of the Swedish-Ukrainian project “Supporting Decentralization in Ukraine” (SALAR International) on international cooperation of the initiative Cities4cities | United4Ukraine

On June 13-15, almost the largest meeting of mayors of large European cities took place at the Brussels Urban Summit. More than 360 mayors and 1,000 representatives of cities from all over the world met together. The Cities 4 Cities Team | United 4 Ukraine team together with the mayors of Lviv and Sindelfingen worked in Brussels to boost opportunities and tools for cooperation between Ukrainian and other European cities.

How to establish contacts with Brussels, what new programs are waiting for Ukrainian communities and why it is important to establish partnerships with European cities – the results of the meeting in Brussels.

No water flows under a lying stone

The European Commission is open and interested in direct communication with Ukrainian communities because it is at the local level that all the main initiatives determined at the state level are implemented.

For this reason, it is important to be present in Brussels. That is why almost all the European associations of local self-governments of the EU countries have their representatives in Brussels, which are engaged in lobbying interests, follow changes in legislation and monitor opportunities. By the way, Lviv recently opened an office in Brussels. This is done by many European cities and regions.

Furthermore, the European Commission can invite Ukrainians to thematic seminars and forums and even cover the costs of your participation, if you actively communicate. For example, as part of the Swedish-Ukrainian project “Supporting Decentralization in Ukraine” (SALAR International), 5 representatives of Ukrainian communities are participating in a seminar held in Brussels on June 21-22 and dedicated to the implementation of the New European Bauhaus.

The Covenant of Mayors also offers many training opportunities. The Lviv Urban Forum will be held next week in Lviv, where the opportunities of the Covenant of Mayors will be presented.

Programs available for Ukraine are poorly used

There are already now opportunities for financing reconstruction and development projects. In particular, in March, the European Commission allocated 300 million euros for Ukraine through the European Investment Bank. It is recognized that there is a problem with the complicated procedures for participating in the programs, especially for small communities, but communicating your needs and submitting applications is definitely necessary.

Applications are also accepted for cross-border cooperation projects, including Poland-Ukraine, Romania-Ukraine, Hungary-Romania-Slovakia-Ukraine, the Black Sea Program, and the Danube Program. Most of these programs are available to the regions of Ukraine bordering the EU, although the Danube Program has recently been extended to the entire territory of Ukraine.

Moreover, Ukraine is in the process of signing separate agreements on joining European programs. Some of them, such as Horizon, Creative Europe, Civil Protection mechanism, Life and others have already been signed. At the same time, the agreement between Ukraine and the European Commission must be signed at the contracting stage, so one can already apply for programs that are expected to be signed by the end of the year.

In particular, the CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values) program is interesting for the development of international partnership. Applications are being accepted by September to support the partnership between cities, which aims at developing a dialogue, mutual understanding and cooperation between citizens at the local level. It is expected that the government of Ukraine will sign the agreement in October at the latest, and the European Commission will sign the contracts in November-December.

When preparing applications, it is important to read the conditions of participation in detail and adapt the project application to them as much as possible. According to statistics, only 10% of the submitted applications receive funding, so one should not be discouraged in case of failure. The more applications, the more chances.

New program for Ukraine

Next year, the European Commission will open a program to support the recovery of Ukraine. Consultations regarding the program are already actively underway in Brussels and Kyiv. The program will be very similar to the structural funds used by the EU member states.

The Government of Ukraine will manage the funds, but 40-60% must be used to implement local reconstruction projects in communities, the European Commission says.

The mechanism of operating funds is not yet clear, but communities will definitely need new skills and specialists with a good command of English to implement projects.

Partnerships offer opportunities

Even if Ukraine does not currently have access to all possible INTERREG capacity building programs, the European partners of Ukrainian communities can invite you to participate in any European project as an observer, external expert or partner.

Therefore, if you have a partner in the EU who actively participates in European programs, think together which programs you could join as partners.

If you still do not have a partner in Europe, contact Cities 4 Cities | United 4 Ukraine.

Cities 4 Cities | United 4 Ukraine – partnership initiatives that joined their efforts in September 2022. The Cities 4 Cities platform was founded by the city of Sindelfingen (Germany) under the auspices of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. United 4 Ukraine was launched by SALAR International and the city of Lviv (Ukraine) with the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida).