Ukraine Recovery Conference: Gdańsk serves as a milepost for local and regional solidarity

'City of Solidarity' champions international partnerships as attention increasingly turns to support for Ukraine's long-term development.

Local and regional leaders have welcomed the results of the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026 as demonstrating growing recognition of the critical role that regions and cities will play in Ukraine's reconstruction and recovery. They also pointed to a growing sense that solidarity with Ukraine is entering a new phase, with more attention to building long-term resilience and win-win partnerships.

The Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC), which ended on 26 June in Gdańsk, was held less than a fortnight after the EU and Ukraine opened the first negotiations on reforms required for membership of the EU.

The conclusions of the Ukraine Recovery Conference, an annual gathering created to support Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, broadly reflect calls made by the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine. These include recognition of the importance of municipalities and regions to Ukraine's resilience, of the potential offered by cooperation between regions, and of the need for stronger coordination with local and regional authorities, as well as recognition that regional policy and good governance will be critical to Ukraine's development. The discussions in Gdańsk heard repeated calls for substantial capacity building and material support for local and regional authorities.

Speaking on behalf of the Alliance, Antje Grotheer (DE/PES), president of Bremen State Parliament and chair of the European Committee of the Regions Working Group on Ukraine, said: "We need to help mayors, because they are the ones who are in charge of so many critical services. People do not complain to the national government if there is no energy, if there is no heating; people complain at the local level. The achievements of Ukraine's mayors in the past four years are remarkable. We in the EU have much to learn from them - and we should help them not just with material support, but also with the specific knowledge and skills needed to flourish in the EU."

Aleksandra Dulkiewicz (PL/EPP), a member of the CoR's Working Group on Ukraine and host of the URC26 in her capacity as mayor of Gdańsk, highlighted the value of peer-to-peer partnerships and the importance for Ukraine's recovery of local self-government and decentralisation.

Speaking a political-level meeting of the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine on 24 June, Oleksii Riabykin, Deputy Minister for Rebuilding and Minister for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, said that "local communities have become the foundation of Ukraine's resilience" and that Ukraine is "steadily moving towards the European Union" including through "practical implementation of European principles, partnership, cohesion, strong local self-government, and the active participation of local communities".

The Alliance meeting was attended by senior government representatives of the Ukraine Donor Platform - a G7-led initiative to coordinate financing and assistance for Ukraine - and featured the launch of a call for proposals by the governments of Germany, France, and Poland for partnership projects with Ukrainian municipalities.

Alongside Ms Grotheer, the delegation sent by the CoR to the Ukraine Recovery Conference included: Władysław Ortyl (PL/ECR), president of the Podkarpackie Region, Patrick Molinoz (FR/PES), vice-president of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, and Dovydas Kaminskas (LT/RE), leader of Tauragė District Municipality.

The URC was also an opportunity to meet Ukrainian partners in the Alliance, including Kyiv's Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko.

Quotes:

• Antje Grotheer (DE/PES), president of Bremen State Parliament and chair of the CoR's Working Group on Ukraine: "How can Ukraine recover successfully from this terrible war? From my perspective, it's very easy: involve regional and local communities. Ukraine's resilience in the war has been built on local foundations. Decentralisation reforms enabled them practice self-reliance. Ukraine's recovery and path to the EU will also be built in regions and cities. Decentralisation reforms should continue. The EU's regional and local communities should also become more involved - we can use Ukrainians' experience for our own benefit. Kyiv's ability to recover from attacks on its energy systems, for example, should make clear to all of us in the EU that support is not a one-way street."
• Aleksandra Dulkiewicz (PL/EPP), mayor of Gdańsk and member of the CoR's Working Group on Ukraine: "We are entering a new stage, moving from crisis response to building long-term resilience and development. That was very clear at this Ukraine Recovery Conference. In Gdańsk, we like to say that we are a city of solidarity - not just because we are the birthplace of the Solidarity (Solidarność) movement, but also in our solidarity. International partnerships are a very important way in which Gdańsk shows its solidarity, and our partnerships with cities such as Odesa and Mariupol enrich the life of Gdańsk in many ways. I am glad that this URC has encouraged more partnerships to be formed."

More information:

• Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026: Background information, the conference's agenda, and recordings of the sessions are available on the event website. In July 2022, five months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) in Lugano identified the methods, priorities and guiding principles for Ukraine's recovery process. The URC in 2023 in London sought to mobilise public- and private-sector funding for Ukraine, with the European Commission announcing a €50 billion package - the Ukraine Facility - to fund Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The URCs in Berlin in 2024 and in Rome in 2025 both focused on four dimensions of Ukraine's recovery - business, human capital, local and regional, and EU-related reforms. This year's URC added a security and defence dimension. Events on local and regional themes featured discussions on housing, decentralised energy systems, transport, and the sustainable development of local economies.
• Perspective of cities and regions: On 24 June, the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine issued a 'Joint statement on empowering local and regional authorities for the reconstruction and future EU accession of Ukraine' with recommendations to the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026.
• European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine: The European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine was created in July 2022 to coordinate efforts by regions, cities, territorial associations and partners to support an effective and sustainable reconstruction of Ukraine. Work of the Alliance presented at the URC2026 included the Training and Internship Programme Support for Ukrainian Municipalities (TIPS4UA), an initiative of the CoR and U-LEAD with Europe supported by many Alliance partners. After a successful pilot phase in 2025, the scaling up of the initiative was presented.
• The European Committee of the Regions and Ukraine: The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) has been working with local and regional authorities in Ukraine since 2010. In 2015, it established a task-force to support Ukraine's decentralisation. The CoR now has a Working Group on Ukraine. The CoR co-founded the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine in June 2022 and serves as its secretariat.
• Road to the URC 2026: Local and regional authorities met to prepare for the URC on 26-27 April in Rzeszów, an event co-organised by the governments of Poland and Ukraine. The meeting was attended by Antje Grotheer, chair of the CoR's Working Group on Ukraine. A further milestone towards the URC was the 4th International Summit of Regions and Cities in Kyiv, which was addressed by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The summit, whose motto was 'Partnership. Resilience. Preparedness', was attended by Alexandra Dulkiewicz, Mayor of Gdańsk and member of the CoR's Working Group on Ukraine. The final pre-URC meeting of local and regional authorities was held in Gdańsk on 24 June, at which the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine issued a 'Joint Statement' setting out the expectations of regions and cities. Separately, CoR President Kata Tüttő visited Kyiv on 14-15 May, addressing the Governance Dialogue on Inclusive Recovery and Development and meeting Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba, and Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko. Mayor Klitschko is president of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, an honorary member of the CoR, a member of the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, and in 2025 won the Mayor Paweł Adamowicz Award created in honour of the late mayor of Gdańsk.

Contacts:

Andrew Gardner

Tel: +32 473 843 981

[email protected]

Wioletta Wojewodska

Tel: +32 473 843 986

[email protected]