The Government of Ukraine considers best practices of Federal Republic of Germany in the field of local government to be unrivalled and important and is committed to strengthen collaboration between municipalities of both countries. This statement was issued by Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman in the course of the meeting with Governing Mayor of Berlin Michael Müller.

The Prime Minister recalled that the process of decentralization had been going through for 3 years which significantly strengthened administrative and most importantly financial capacity of regions and districts and granted more power in adoption of decisions for specific local governance. In this context, Volodymyr Groysman stressed that strengthening of contacts and relations between Ukrainian regions with regions of other countries will be of utmost importance.

“Deepening of cooperation at the level of cities, municipalities is essential for Ukraine. We are now going through a serious process of formation of local government and cooperation at the regional level will offer new opportunities. We as Government will put every single effort to promote such cooperation", urged Volodymyr Groysman.

He welcomed the signing of the joint declaration on partnership between the capitals of Ukraine and Germany and mentioned his recent meeting with Prime Minister of Bavaria Horst Seehofer during which the parties touched upon the most promising areas of cooperation.

"The development of this cooperation is of paramount importance. We can do a lot at the state level, but when the cooperation at the level of municipalities begins to interact, when there are many areas of cooperation, hence there will be success, inter alia in the sphere of economy", underlined the Head of Ukrainian Government.

He put an emphasis to the fact that Ukraine and Germany have a good history of political support and business relations. The Prime Minister expressed gratitude to Germany and personally to Chancellor Angela Merkel "for the leadership stance" in support for Ukraine and continuous assistance for business development. The two countries have already held several joint business forums, in Kyiv Ukrainian-German Chamber of Commerce is functioning and the issue of strengthening of relations in the field of science and culture is of current concern.