On September 18th, the city of Poltava hosted the roundtable dedicated to further amalgamation of communities, specifically merging the neighboring communities with existing amalgamated communities (ATCs), and analysis of communities’ capabilities to provide public services based on criteria, developed by Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories, Construction and Public Utilities of Ukraine (MinRegion).

The event was organized by the Association of Amalgamated Territorial Communities and Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support Project DESPRO, involving the MinRegion experts.

The participants of the roundtable covered the issues of expectations of the forthcoming completion of the reform of local self-governance and territorial organization of power in Ukraine, how to finalize the amalgamation process, and how to estimate the capability of communities that have already amalgamated and those still preparing to do so.

“Now is the important moment when we see communities in risk of lacking resources to provide services, so we can suggest solutions, get ready for optimistic or pessimistic scenarios”, - said Oleksiy Riabokon, Head of Pyriatyn ATC and Deputy Head of the Association of Amalgamated Territorial Communities.

So we encourage communities of all regions to join the all-Ukrainian dialogue on criteria of amalgamation of capable communities!