The seminar was inaugurated by Barbara Imiołczyk, President of the Executive Board of the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy.
“I would like to welcome the representatives of organisations which operate for the benefit of Ukrainian self-governance; I would also like to welcome coaches, experts and journalists. We gathered here because of the passion that we share; the passion for democracy and building the future of a country based on common values such as human rights, freedom and the model of the state which applies the principle of subsidiarity. We believe that together we will manage to draw up the “Transparent Ukraine” programme and work together for many upcoming years. I hope that this project will be a small building block of the edifice of common Europe,” greeted the guests Barbara Imiołczyk.
Witold Drożdż, Deputy Minister of Interior and Administration, confirmed that Polish-Ukrainian programmes of supraregional cooperation are of strategic importance. He reminded that the reform of public administration in Poland is continuous in nature and that, on the one hand, it concerns technological restructuring that also comprises the implementation of new information technologies, and on the other hand, it is related to the further decentralisation of the country and conferring powers to local governments, a concept promoted by the present government.
“I am convinced that in the course of the programme we will learn a lot from one another. Being responsible for the popularisation of the development of information society in Poland, I derive particular satisfaction from the fact that new technologies are an essential part of the project. I will observe the further development of the project with an even deeper satisfaction,” said Witold Drożdż, recognising the programme as invaluable.
Among invited guests who spoke was Wiaczeslaw Tolkowanow, member of the Office of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions of the Council of Europe, head of department of international cooperation, investment progress and European integration in the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction of Ukraine.
The assumptions of the “Transparent Ukraine” project were presented together by Olena Gazizowa, Ukrainian project coordinator, and for the Polish party - Przemysław Fenrych, director of the project.
During the subsequent part of the seminar, Professor dr hab. Jerzy Regulski, one of the authors of the Polish local governments reform, outlined the Polish concept and implementation of the idea of local government. Professor Regulski’s lecture entitled “Polish local government. Assumptions, implementation, achievements and failures over 18 years of functioning” aroused strong interest of the audience.
Immediately after the lecture, invited guests took part in a panel discussion on the “Contemporary problems of Polish local government”, which allowed Ukrainian guests to get acquainted with contemporary problems faced by Polish local governments.
Polish and Ukrainian representatives of public administration, local governments and non-governmental organisations participated in the meeting held in Warsaw at the Kyriad Prestige Hotel. Poland was represented by, inter alia, Professor Jerzy Regulski, founder of the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy and one of the founding fathers of local government in the independent Republic of Poland; Barbara Imiołczyk, President of the Executive Board of the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy, Member of Parliament during the second and third term of the Sejm; Włodzimierz Puzyna, vice-chancellor of Higher School of Public Administration, Member of Parliament during the first, second and third term of the Sejm, participant of numerous international projects related to building democratic structures of civil society in Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia; and Grażyna Kopińska, director of the Anti-Corruption Programme of Stefan Batory Foundation since 2000.
Among Ukrainian guests that took part in the seminar one may distinguish, inter alia, Victor Krawczenko, Deputy Executive Director of Association of Ukrainian Cities, author of several academic course books and a professor of law; Aleksander Sobko-Nesteruk from the Board of the Foundation for Local Self-Government of Ukraine, Pawło Kozyriew, mayor of the Ukrainka town and vice-president of the Association of Ukrainian Cities; Olena Gazizowa, Ukrainian project coordinator, director of the Central Ukraine Regional Training Centre of the Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy, director of the project "Implementation of ethical and effective management. Creating rules of social monitoring".
The seminar was aimed at presenting Polish local government, the assumptions and results of the “Transparent Poland” Programme and the discussion on the needs, goals and opportunities for the implementation of the "Transparent Ukraine" Social Programme in Ukraine.
The general aim of the “Transparent Ukraine” project is to build an ethical and effective local government in the Ukraine and, at the same time, to create a transparent management system and implement it in the bodies within Ukrainian local governments. The project contributes to the development of democracy and to building a civil society through introducing the principles of civil participation on the one hand, and a better cooperation with the local office and authorities on the other.
A number of measures in respect of information, consulting, promotion and education are envisaged within the project. Apart from the seminar in Warsaw, in September 2008 a conference will be held in Kiev. In the first half of October 2008, a series of training sessions for experts will be organised in Dnepropetrovsk, Cherkassy and Lviv, and in November – training sessions and study visits of Ukrainian experts in Lublin, Krakow and Szczecin. The project website www.prozora.org will host systematic advisory and consulting services as well as a public debate.
The project will result in, inter alia, the publication of a guidebook for the “Transparent Ukraine" Programme and the preparation of a group of 60 regional experts for the implementation of the Programme, in cooperation with Polish partners, in all regions of the Ukraine. The experts will have a detailed action plan as well as an instructional publication which will allow them to run the programme in the same way all over the country. The experts and local authorities (mayor’s offices) will have access to a website functioning as a public debate and e-learning educational platform. The authors of the project hope that “Transparent Ukraine" will become an important element in the public debate in the Ukraine and that the information about the action and the programme will be conveyed by the media important for local authorities.
website text version - WAI
