On 24 April 2023, Claus Neukirch, Director of the Directorate of Programme Coordination of the Council of Europe, as part of his working visit to Ukraine, visited the Ivanivska territorial community in the Chernihiv region, which was damaged and suffered greatly as a result of Russian military aggression. There, the Director and the representatives' Council of Europe Office in Ukraine found out how the digital platform for destroyed/damaged housing at the community level works in practice.
The digital platform and recommendations were developed under the grant support of the Council of Europe Project “Internal Displacement in Ukraine: Building Solutions. Phase II” in 2022. The pilot launch of the platform took place within the Ivanivska territorial community (Chernihiv Region), which has expressed interest in cooperating with the project. Due to military aggression, 1,513 residential buildings were damaged on the territory of this community.
“Strengthening human rights protection for displaced persons and returnees, improving their living conditions and reducing the adverse consequences of displacement in line with Council of Europe and European standards is one of the objectives of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine ‘Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction’ 2023-2026,” Director Claus Neukirch said observing the first results of the pilot project in Ivanivska village.
The Head of the Ivanivska territorial community, Olena Shvydka, shared with the participants the first implementation experience of the digital platform and outlined further steps for rebuilding the community. She thanked the Council of Europe for its support and expressed her hope for further cooperation.
Besides, the Director of the Directorate of Programme Coordination and the representatives' Council of Europe Office in Ukraine visited the school in the Yahidne village. In the basement, Russian troops kept more than 300 local residents, including children and older adults, for nearly a month in the spring of 2022.
On 25 April, the Director of Programme Co-ordination Claus Neukirch hold meetings with representatives of Ukrainian state authorities and diplomatic representatives of the Council of Europe member states and to discuss co-operation activities implemented according to the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2023–2026. He emphasized that current Action Plan for Ukraine is the biggest Council of Europe Action Plan ever designed for a single country and for its successful implementation close coordination between all partners is needed.
“The Action Plan addresses immediate and medium-term needs of the country in areas where the Council of Europe has expertise. In addition to providing continued support to the country’s efforts to honour its obligations as a Council of Europe member State, the Action Plan aims to support Ukraine’s European perspective reform agenda, following the decision by the European Council on 23 June 2022 to grant EU candidate status to Ukraine. The Council of Europe is very well placed to extend support to Ukraine for achieving the objectives of the accession agenda related to human rights, the rule of law, and democracy,” said Director Claus Neukirch.
Director Neukirch met with Oleksandr Kornienko, First Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Ukraine and other members of the Parliament, Dmytro Lubinets, Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on human rights (the Ombudsperson), Mr Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, Mr Oleksandr Banchuk, deputy Minister of Justice and Ms Kateryna Pavlichenko, deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Mykola Povoroznyk, First deputy head and Ms Maryna Khonda, deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration, HE Ambassador Matti Maasikas, Head of EU Delegation to Ukraine, Ambassadors/Charge d’affairs of member and observer states of the Council of Europe.
