Access to administrative services throughout Ukraine — how the EU’s “U-Lead with Europe” program helps communities to create administrative services centres

#AASuccessStories is a column about Ukrainians, who benefit from the Association Agreement with the EU and enjoy opportunities for cooperation with the European Union.

The European Union's “U-Lead with Europe” program has been working in Ukraine since 2018 to ensure that all communities, including the most remote, have access to administrative services.  490 modern administrative service centres, 11 of them are mobile - started working in Ukraine under the support of the program.

#AASuccessStories today is about the European Union “U-Lead with Europe” program, which helps Ukrainian communities to open administrative service centres all over Ukraine.

The Center for Administrative Services in the city of Polonne (Khmelnytskiy region) started operating in April 2018, according to. The Polonska community applied for participation in the “U-LEAD with Europe” project at an early stage, back in 2016. Modern building with glass walls, air conditioning system, and energy-saving heating system was funded by the EU program. Landscaping of the territory was arranged by the community — 200,000 hryvnias from the local budget were spent on that. Currently, the center has 12 administrators, it is equipped with a children's corner and ramps. During the two years of the Center residents of Polonska community received more than 55,000 services. Moreover, the list of services has also been enhanced since the Center’s opening from 167 to 199.

In Krasnopilska amalgamated territorial community (ATM) a modern Administrative Services Center was established with the support of “U-LEAD with Europe” program in November last year. The representatives of the village council say that the community started preparing for the center creation immediately after the ATM registration. At that time Krasnopilska community did not meet the “U-LEAD with Europe” program selection criteria, as its population at that time was 4,300. While only communities with the population of more than 5,000 people could participate in the project. But when the representatives of the program came to the community, they immediately agreed to help, because Krasnopilka community did a great job and the premises for the center met all the requirements. “When implementing the administrative centre project, we’ve met all the requirements of international donors, it was difficult, because of high standards, but we did it. All the employees have received the appropriate qualification, and here we have the result”, — Kateryna Romanenko, Head of the Krasnopilska territorial community says. Today the Administrative Services Center in Krasnopilska community is a modern open space office equipped with all conveniences for visitors. All staff was trained in aspecial sessions on administrative services organized by “U-LEAD with Europe” Program. The program fully equipped the centre with computers, equipment and furniture. Community purchased a workstation for foreign passports and ID cards issuance. The community has also signed a cooperation agreement with the State Migration Service in Vinnytsia Oblast, and plans to provide legal assistance to the residents.

In Novosanzharskaya territorial community, Poltava Region, the Administrative Services Centre is only under construction. A Memorandum of Cooperation between the community and the EU's “U-LEAD with Europe” program was signed in early August. Construction of the centre under a Swedish project should be completed by the end of 2020, and it will start receiving visitors in February 2021. The cost of the construction is almost 6.5 million hryvnias.  20% of the budget is financed by the community. The EU's “U-LEAD with Europe” Program will provide the new center with furniture, appliances, an electronic queue management system, software, and will provide institutional support for the establishment of a centre and staff training.
The new Administrative Services Centre will create 11 jobs and provide more than 150 services, including registration of residence, business, real estate, civil status, social services, pensions and other services needed by community and district residents. All staff of the centre will be trained by Swedish-Ukrainian experts from the “U-LEAD with Europe” Program.
“Quality and affordable services are one of the key criteria for government capacity. It is important that services are provided in a comfortable environment and in a transparent format”, - Susanna Dellans, Director of “U-LEAD with Europe” from SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency) said. Administrative Services Centre in Novi Sanzhary is the third centre that “U-LEAD with Europe” will build from scratch in Ukraine. And all detailed construction design documentation required for the construction or adaptation of a building is available for use by local governments. Out of 490 planned centres, the program helped to open 144. 11 mobile centres were also launched. Thanks to this, more than 9.5 million Ukrainians will have access to modern, high-quality and corruption-free administrative services.

Apply for the “U-LEAD with Europe” Program for improving the quality of administrative services for people here.