U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine – Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Programme continues with Slovenia hosting the second international study visit on social and economic development of communities with diverse ethnic population next week. The visit will take place in Ljubljana and Prekmurje between 18 and 23 November 2018 with 20 public officials from Ukraine.
Participants will begin their visit with an introduction day at Jable Castle, meeting a number of Slovenian administrative and governing bodies, among them Local Self-Government Service at the Ministry of Public Administration and Office for National Minorities of the Republic of Slovenia. In the following days, the workshops will take you to the field, visiting Murska Sobota, Lendava, Roma settlement Pušča, Gornji Senik, Puconci and smaller towns and villages in Prekmurje region.
The five day workshop follows the fist study visit in September, when participants researched the municipalities of Izola, Koper, Domžale, Trst and Dolina in the west of Slovenia. Centre for European Perspective as the organizer of the study visit will present the autochthonous Slovenian national minority living in Slovenia’s four neighboring countries and autochthonous Italian and Hungarian national communities in Slovenia, as well as the Roma community. Since national minorities play an important role in all-round cross-border cooperation – important to Slovenia as a whole and its border areas, which constitute a major portion of Slovenia’s territory, it can serve as an example of good practice useful also for Ukraine and its development and decentralization progress.
The visit is taking place in the framework of the multi-donor action U-LEAD established by the European Union and its Member States Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Poland and Sweden. It is aimed to contribute to the establishment of multilevel governance that is transparent, accountable and responsive to the needs of the population of Ukraine. U-LEAD with Europe is supporting the Ukrainian Government, represented by the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine (MinRegion) as a key political partner, in the coordination and implementation of the decentralisation and regional policy reforms. The Programme carries out demand-driven and targeted trainings for officials at the national, regional and local level.
