On 5 July 2023, the Steering Committee Meeting was held to launch a new Council of Europe Project «Facilitating housing solutions for the war-affected people in Ukraine» (hereinafter – the Project). This Project is implemented within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” 2023-2026.
- The Project aims to provide technical and expert support in developing sustainable housing solutions for displaced and war affected people in Ukraine through an inclusive and participatory approach, including the strong engagement of civil society, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and the war-affected people.
The Project duration is 2023–2024.
The Project encompasses the following two major components:
- Improving the national and local regulatory framework on housing solutions and facilitating access to housing programmes in line with European and international human rights standards
- Promoting and implementing targeted digital solutions to ensure access to housing rights for the war-affected people in Ukraine.
The Steering Committee Meeting brought together the leadership of key national partners of the Project including Ministry for Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, the representatives of the countries – supporters of the Action Plan for Ukraine: Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction 2023–2026 and international partners, in particular Council of Europe Development Bank.
Opening the meeting, Ms Olena LYTVYNENKO, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine a.i., noted that within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine: Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction 2023-2026, the Council of Europe is expanding its cooperation with legislative and executive bodies in the direction of protecting the rights of the internally displaced persons and war-affected people in Ukraine, responding to the numerous challenges that Ukraine faced after February 24, 2022, as a result of the large-scale military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.
Olena LYTVYNENKO expressed her gratitude to the countries that provided not only financial, but also political support to the Council of Europe within the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine: Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction 2023-2026, thanks to which the Council of Europe can implement extremely important projects in Ukraine.
The participants of the Steering Committee Meeting were addressed with a welcome speech from Ms Mariana CHICU, Project Coordinator, Head of the Unit on Ukraine, Republic of Moldova and Armenia, Co-operation Programmes Division, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, which expressed support and solidarity to national partners and colleagues who managed to maintain promptness and efficiency and do everything possible to overcome the unprecedented challenges caused by the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and its harmful consequences.
Ms Mariana CHICU emphasized that at its 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe (Reykjavík, May 16-17, 2023) condemning violations of international law, including international human rights law and international humanitarian law, confirmed the urgent need to ensure full responsibility of the Russian Federation for aggression against Ukraine. An important step was the establishment of the Register of damage for Ukraine as first step towards an international compensation mechanism for victims of Russian aggression. At the end of her speech, Ms. KIKU congratulated Ukraine on joining the Council of Europe Development Bank.
The representatives of the national partners` institutions addressed the participants with the opening remarks and welcoming words wishing a successful implementation of the Project. Among them were: Ms Nataliia KOZLOVSKA, Deputy Minister for Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine; Mr Volodymyr ANUSHKEVYCH, Director General of the Directorate for Internally Displaced Persons and Temporarily Occupied Territories, Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine; Mr Kostіantyn KOSHELENKO, Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine on Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitisation; Mr Serhii KOMNATNYІ, Chairman of the Board of the State Fund for Support of Youth Housing Construction.
The participants also expressed their gratitude to the Council of Europe for constant support and quick response to the requests of national partners.
Diana BERTHIER, Manager for Ukraine, Credits and Social Development, Development Bank of the Council of Europe, said that this is a historic event, both for Ukraine and for the of Council of Europe Development Bank. Ukraine became the 43rd member country of the Bank, which means that the Bank is able to start projects in Ukraine and provide support.
Diana BERTHIER also reported that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Bank provided assistance to countries neighboring Ukraine in which Ukrainian refugees found refuge. The Bank can provide immediate support through technical assistance, grants and loans and thus respond to the needs that exist in Ukraine. Ms BERTHIER drew attention to the fact that the activities of the Bank fully correspond to the actions of the Council of Europe, which are planned in Ukraine, and today's discussion, which concerns the search for housing solutions, is one of these directions.
Research carried out with the support of the Council of Europe was also presented during the Steering Committee Meeting, which, in particular, concerns the creation of housing and construction cooperatives as a mechanism for solving housing issues for IDPs: advantages and disadvantages of such a mechanism; construction of the architecture of the national compensation mechanism and problematic issues regarding confirmation of property ownership when applying for compensation; legal regulation of placement of IDPs in places of compact settlement
Serhiy MARUSCHENKO, the National Coordinator of the Project, presented the Work Plan of the Project for 2023-2024, outlining the main tasks facing the Project. The participants positively evaluated the presented Work Plan and discussed the priority areas of future cooperation with the Project.
The results of the event were summarized by Erlend FALK, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.
