Today NALAS presented the preliminary findings and recommendations of the status reports on the progress of decentralisation and local public administration reform in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine at the  European Union – Eastern Partnership Local Leaders’ Forum: “Solidarity and cooperation: how to be stronger together in the coming years?”, organised by CEMR and PLATFORMA.

The reports highlight the main achievements, challenges and opportunities for future reforms in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. They aim to support and inform the advocacy efforts of CALM, NALAG and AUC vis-à-vis their national and EU level stakeholders; strengthen the position of CALM, NALAG and AUC for intergovernmental dialogue at the national and EU level; support an open intergovernmental dialogue on decentralisation and local government reform in EaP countries and facilitate learning and promote exchange of experiences and lessons learned on decentralisation and local public administration reform.

The reports stress out that the three countries are quite different from one another from a territorial and administrative perspective as regards number and size of local government units at the first or second level of local governance. Local governments in the three countries have significant diffrences in terms of functional responsibilities – however, they also have in common the urgent need to increase local government political, adminitrative and fiscal autonomy and enahnce an open and inclusive dialogue on decentralisation and local public administration reforms.  

The status reports are being developed by NALAS with the support of PLATFORMA, the pan-European coalition of local and regional governments and their associations active in decentralised cooperation. They are being developed in partnership with NALAG – the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia, CALM – the Congress of Local Authorities from Moldova and AUC – the Association of Ukrainian Cities, and with the technical assistance and expertise from KDZ – Centre for Public Administration Research.

The reports will be published by PLATFORMA and NALAS in mid-December 2020, in English, Georgian, Moldovan/Romanian and Ukrainian languages.