Permanent platform for effective cooperation of society, NGOS, government launched

"This forum was organized due to serious challenges Ukraine is facing today: the necessity to preserve statehood, implement effective reforms, modern, democratic, and competitive development of the country, and successful European integration. Its participants proceed from irreversible integration of Ukraine in the European community declared by the Agreement on Association and a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the EU dated June 27, 2014," reads the statement.

According to one of the forum initiators, Head of the Anti-Crisis Council of Non-Governmental Organizations and President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) Anatoliy Kinakh, a permanent platform for communication and effective cooperation between representatives of the Ukrainian society, public activists, and the authorities, including the country's president, Verkhovna Rada, government, and international community, has been launched.

"The forum was founded as a support system for reforms in Ukraine. Such an approach is based on the best European practices. The key tasks of the forum include fruitful communication between the government and society, explanation of reasons for changes and reforms to the public, monitoring of the implementation of judicial and administrative decisions and their influence on everyday life of the society, monitoring and informing about threats to reforms in the country. A permanent working group, which is to be formed on October 15, 2015, will conduct the analysis and evaluation of current and future development programs and strategies in Ukraine, including programs of the Cabinet of Ministers, president, and other national and international partners," Kinakh said.

Sectoral forums were also set up at the national and regional levels in order to tackle issues related to the business environment, agriculture, energy, decentralization and regional development, development of the civil society, education and science, social problems, and culture. Each sectoral forum will have national and international coordinators. The creation of an assembly of coordinators was also initiated to ensure horizontal coordination of work of the sectoral forums.

"All necessary measures have to be taken for modern, competitive, and democratic development of Ukraine, strengthening of democracy and supremacy of law, and achievement of the European standards of life for Ukrainian citizens. We are committed to full implementation of the agreement on a deep and comprehensive free trade area between Ukraine and the EU from January 1, 2016," reads the statement.

According to the participants in the first sitting of the National Forum "The Transformation of Ukraine", the huge scale of the set tasks requires a combination of all available domestic and international experience and an open discussion (as a preliminary condition for a national consensus) of the reform implementation process. Public activists, business representatives, politicians, and journalists have to contribute to informing the society and deepening its understanding of the direction of reforms in Ukraine.

Information: The next sitting of the National Forum "The Transformation of Ukraine" will be held in Kyiv in November 2015. To get additional information, please follow the link: nftu.org.ua.

The supervisory board of the national forum includes Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate Filaret, Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Patriarch Sviatoslav, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Jan Tombinski, President of the Management Board of the European Centre for Entrepreneurship Foundation Jerzy Kwiecinski, President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Anatoliy Kinakh, public activist and high technology pioneer Evgeni Utkin, public activist and People's Artist of Ukraine Yevhen Nyschuk.