The North-South Prize of the Council of Europe had been awarded in May 2023 to the Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC) upon proposal of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Award Ceremony was held on 14 December 2023 in the Portuguese Parliament in Lisbon.
The Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC) was selected to recognize its commitment to ensure better integration of Internally Displaced Persons in host communities as well as to address socioeconomic challenges that arise in wartime. In addition, the Prize also intends to recognise the Association´s efforts to uphold democratic values by ensuring that the legislative framework regulating the functioning of local authorities is fully aligned with the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government.
In the margins of the ceremony, the Head of the Portuguese Delegation to the Congress, Jorge Sequeira (SOC/G/PD), Mayor of Sao Joao da Madeira, met the representative of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, Vadym Boichenko, Mayor of Mariupol, Donetsk Region, Chair of the Section for the Development of De-occupied and Temporarily Occupied Communities of the association and Member of its Board.
Mr Sequeira reiterated the Congress’ concern about the Ukrainian abducted mayors in the context of the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. He underlined that “mayors, as local leaders, were particularly targeted by the Russian occupying forces, for their fierce resistance against the occupation and their essential role in maintaining the cohesion and functioning of the Ukrainian communities”. “This is an obvious attempt to intimidate the civilian population and suppress the resistance in the occupied territories”, he stated while recalling that the Congress has repeatedly demanded for immediate and unconditional release of all Ukrainian local elected representatives.
Since the beginning of the war of aggression against Ukraine, fifty-five local officials and local elected representatives, including thirty-five mayors, were abducted by the Russian occupying forces. To date, five local leaders remain in captivity: the mayors of Hola Prystan (Kherson oblast), Kherson (Kherson oblast), Dniprorudne (Zaporizhya oblast) and the starostas (village elder) of Hrebenykivka of Boromlya community (Sumy oblast) and Novy Borovytshi of Snovsk community (Chernihiv oblast).
Mr Sequeira and Mr Boichenko also exchanged on the Congress’ cooperation with the AUC within the project “Strengthening multi-level governance, democracy and human rights at local level” implemented by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities as part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction for 2023-2026” - and the partnerships between Ukrainian local authorities and their counterparts in Europe.
