October 18-24, 2015,Warsaw-Wroclaw

18 leading Ukrainian communication experts, representing governmental and non-governmental organizations, were meeting their Polish colleagues throughout the week. The visit was made possible, thanks to collaboration of Swiss-Ukrainian project “Decentralization support in Ukraine” DESPRO and Polish International Solidarity Foundation “Solidarity Fund PL”. 

The key questions, which interested Ukrainian delegation, were: how exactly Polish public had been informed about the essence and content of reforms, when they had been conducted, what messages had been used, how a coordinated structure of communication between authority and public had been built, and how they functioned as of the time of the visit.

Polish speakers were not just making their respective presentations, but also replied to a storm of questions from Ukrainian guests. The questions regarded not only informational work, but also functioning of local self-government, social institutions – education, healthcare, at the basic level – as Ukrainian people were concerned with these particular issues in connection with reforms.

Polish experts, whom training visit participants met, included the following renowned people:

· Jerzy Stempen – former president of constitutional court, vice-president of local democracy Fund;

· Jan Andrzej Dabrowski – head of Eastern Europe Collegium;

· Marek Peda – project manager for Ukraine of Polish Robert Schumann Foundation;

· Pavel Koval – former Euro-deputy, head of delegation to European Parliament Commission for EU-Ukraine association;

· Jacek Safuta – director of the information bureau of European Parliament in Poland;

· Szymon Zawillo – principal specialist of the governmental informational centre in the Secretariat of the chairman of the Council of Ministers;

· Eva Gaczyk-Plumley – first councillor of the regular representative office of Poland in the EU;

· doctor Grazhyna Kacprowicz – Warsaw university, former spokesperson of the Administration of the Committee for Euro-integration issues;

· Marek Tabor – councillor of foreign affairs Minister.

Here are several comments on the visit from Ukrainian experts.

Oksana Mitnitska, Ukrainian Crisis Media-centre: “It’s been a unique trip, in which we have managed to unite the micro-level and really visionary things in such a way that it all now fits into one puzzle”.

Ivetta Delikatna, councillor to the Minister of informational policy of Ukraine: «In the administration of Miakine community near Wroclaw there are booklets of building contractors, the meeting room is better, than in commercial offices, and containers for differentiated waste collection are available. That is how a school and sport stadium in the village look!!! Now people have to elect those, who are going to repair children’s playgrounds, set the lights, and redirect the funds to schools ». 

The visit’s main result is a sincere longing of its participants to work hard at home in order to achieve the same positive outcomes, similar to the results, achieved by their Western neighbours.