Small town for 150 guests is built in Dnipropetrovsk

In the downtown of Dnipropetrovsk, in the square between the buildings of the Oblast Council and the Oblast Administration, a small European town is being built. Large tent with extensions will stand there for almost a week. In the last days of April, for the first time in Ukraine, a conference of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) as well as youth, social, and academic events related to it, will be held there. “We deliberately organized everything in a way so that the event would take place in facilities of Oblast Administration, Oblast Council, and the ‘Small European Town.’ It will have two large halls – one for accreditation, and another one for plenary sessions. Almost 300 people will be able to work in a large hall. This small town will remain on the square for three more days after the Assembly ends, it will host conferences of youth and student organizations. We want to attract the best young people and the public to introduce such model of communication to them and give them a chance to visit one of Europe’s biggest events,” said the head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Council Yevhen Udod at a press conference.

The conference of the Assembly of European Regions will be held in Dnipropetrovsk on April 25-27. At the moment, this organization, founded in 1985, brings together 260 regions from 35 countries, including eight oblasts of Ukraine. About 150 guests from countries of the European continent are expected to attend the conference in Dnipropetrovsk, including representatives of the AER, members of the European Parliament, leaders of European regions, and diplomats. Within the framework of the conference meetings of Committees on the economy and culture will be held. Various projects will be presented for the attention of the participants. Dnipropetrovsk oblast will suggest proposals to potential investors, and the guests will present projects in the field of infrastructure, economy, and public transportation development in their cities. The best of these projects might be implemented in Dnipropetrovsk oblast. Chairman of the Oblast Council promised a rich cultural program for the participants of the conference – they will go on two excursion tours.

First, the guests will go to “Pivdenmash” and Aerospace Center. Another tour will present national and regional flavor to the guests from Europe: participants of the conference will see the Cossack Holy Trinity Cathedral in Novomoskovsk and will go to Petrykivka, where they will have a master class in art painting. Polish colleagues have been helping the Dnipropetrovsk team with preparation of the conference, since in the past few years they have participated in a number of events organized in the region. “I am very glad that activity of Dnipropetrovsk oblast is developing this way. Regional reform and the development of inter-regional cooperation opened Poland a way to the European Union in due time,” said Henryk Litwin, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Ukraine. According to him, the regional government is the primary provider of European funds that can be used in the development of the country. “Over the past decade, since Poland joined the European Union, it received nearly 50 billion euros of funding for specific projects. This is a huge contribution to the Polish economy, but it would be impossible to use it if there was no reform of local self-government. Present conference of the Assembly of European Regions will be an accelerator of the development of the Eastern Partnership,” said the Ambassador.