During the second day of the visit to the French Republic, the delegation of the Committee on the Organisation of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning held a series of meetings with French parliamentarians – representatives of the National Assembly and the Senate of the French Republic.
- In the National Assembly, the Ukrainian MPs and members of the Committee met with the Vice-President of the National Assembly, former Minister of Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Authorities, Vice-Presidents of the Legislative Committee and other members of the Committee.
The French colleagues shared their experience in implementing decentralisation and deconcentration reforms, which were important components of political and administrative changes in the country in terms of improving the efficiency of governance and provided for the transfer of a significant number of state functions to local governments, vesting local executive authorities with certain powers of central authorities, and strengthening the role of prefects in coordinating actions between local and central authorities.
Representatives of the lower house of the French Parliament informed the Committee's delegation that the French legislature is currently discussing the need to further improve the territorial organisation of the country's power, namely the expediency of consolidating basic administrative-territorial units, revising the municipal administration system and redistributing powers between all levels of government.
The members of the Ukrainian delegation noted that France's experience in implementing decentralisation reform in terms of the functioning of the prefects' institute is extremely interesting and useful for Ukraine and expressed hope that France would promote advocacy at the level of the EU institutions for the implementation of the relevant reform in Ukraine.
- In the Senate of France, the Ukrainian delegation held dialogues with representatives of the France-Ukraine Friendship Group, First Vice-President of the French Senate, and Vice-Chair of the French Senate Delegation on Local Government and Decentralisation, Secretary of the Constitutional Law Committee.
During the visit, the parliamentarians discussed the establishment of partnerships between Ukrainian and French territorial communities and regions and their participation in European funds programmes to implement joint projects in priority areas (in particular, strengthening Ukraine's energy security, restoration of infrastructure, housing and other facilities destroyed as a result of russian armed aggression, etc.)
The delegation focused on the continuation and strengthening of the French Republic's assistance to Ukraine in defending its sovereignty and repelling military aggression, the closure of Ukrainian skies and the possibility of lifting restrictions on strikes by Western weapons on military targets in the territory of the aggressor country, and the use of frozen russian assets.
The working visit of the Committee members was organised by the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, which is implemented by the German government company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.