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Enlargement conferenceincludes Ukraine for the first time, and Lviv opens representation in Brussels.

Ukraine has taken further steps towards integration into the institutional structures of the European Union, with the opening of the first representative office of a Ukrainian city in Brussels and with Ukrainian cities and regions for the first time joining local and regional authorities from the western Balkans and Trkiye to discuss the challenges of the accession process.

Lviv, the seventh most populous city in Ukraine, will manage its outreach to the EU institutions from office space provided by the European Committee of the Regions. Speaking on 4 May at the opening of Lviv's representation to the EU, Deputy Mayor Serhii Kiral said that the city is willing to serve as a "front office" for other Ukrainian sub-national authorities as well.

Deputy Mayor Kiral was in Brussels to attend the Enlargement Day conference organised annually by the European Committee of the Regions (CoR). The CoR champions the importance of involving regions and cities in the enlargement process, noting that local and regional administrations have a role in implementing roughly two-thirds of EU laws.

Anna Magyar (HU/ECR), the CoR's rapporteur on enlargement, said: "This year's Enlargement Day comes in the wake of historic decisions such as Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina all receiving EU candidate status. Likewise, the first ever EU-Albania and EU-North Macedonia Stabilisation and Association Councils took place in March, providing new momentum for the enlargement process. As the CoR's spokesperson for enlargement, I am building on that new impetus with my opinion reaffirming the EU's local and regional authorities' commitment to a merit-based accession, which contributes to peace, democracy, prosperity, security and stability in Europe."

Ms Magyar, who is a member of the Council of Csongrd Megye, continued: "The EU must re-energise its enlargement process to retain geostrategic relevance and credibility in these turbulent times by setting a clear roadmap and timeline, providing more meaningful incentives to spur the necessary reforms. We need to make the best use of peer-to-peer capacity-building instruments in order to help institutional development and capacity building in our partner countries, especially at the local level, which will truly favour gradual multidimensional integration."

Antje Grotheer (DE/PES), vice-president of Bremen City Parliament and a member of the CoR's Working Group Ukraine, said: "There is now a clear understanding at all political levels at the EU, national, regional and local level that enlargement of the European Union will strengthen security, stability and prosperity in Europe. We also now have a moral and political duty to contribute significantly to the reconstruction of Ukraine, its regions and cities. But the EU will need fresh money for that. We urge national governments to respond to the extraordinary challenges of the present by agreeing to increase the EU's budget and consider for that purpose through a financing scheme similar to tthe one used for the EU's own recovery plan."

Ms Grotheer, who chairs the CoR's Working Group Trkiye, also highlighted the humanitarian challenges faced by Trkiye, saying: "The humanitarian efforts after the devastating earthquake might be an opportunity to revitalise the EU-Trkiye relations."

The European Commission is expected to publish a mid-term review of the EU's long-term budget its 2021-27 Multiannual Financial Framework this summer. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is putting significant pressure on the finances of the EU, which has absorbed exceptional costs in support of Ukraine and EU member states affected by the war.

The war in Ukraine has resulted in an increase in international cooperation between cities and regions, including through the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine. The Alliance, which was created in June 2022, is bringing together local and regional associations from the European Union and Ukraine, as well as individual cities and regions, with the aim of coordinating joint efforts for the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine and facilitating contacts and cooperation between its core partners and EU institutions. The CoR is serving as the secretariat of the Alliance. In April, the CoR's president, Vasco Alves Cordeiro, represented the Alliance at the International Summit of Cities and Regions in Kyiv, where he met Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On 25 May, the CoR and the Alliance will hold a joint workshop with the European Commission, the OECD, as well as the governments of Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland with the purpose of underlining the importance of the role that local and regional authorities can play in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction process and on the path toward EU membership. The workshop intends to produce recommendations for consideration at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, due to take place in London on 21-22 June. The London conference will focus on mobilising international support for Ukraine's economic and social stabilisation and recovery from the effects of war, including through emergency assistance for immediate needs and financing private-sector participation in the reconstruction process.

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Ukraine's regions and cities take further steps towards EU - European Committee of the Regions