German-Ukrainian municipal partnership conference June 2025

2:00 PM to 2:30 PM – Parallel city tours

3:00 PM – Admittance and Registration until 4:00 PM

• Market of opportunities
• Galley Walk

4:30 PM – Opening words

• Johann Saathoff, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
• S.E. Oleksii Makeiev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Federal Republic of Germany
• Nathanael Liminski, Minister for Federal and European Affairs, International Affairs and Media of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

5:00 PM – History of German-Ukrainian relations

• Prof. Dr. Ricarda Vulpius, University of Münster
• Prof. Dr. Polina Barvinska, University of Odessa

5:40 PM – The municipal umbrella organisations in dialogue

• Markus Lewe, Lord Mayor of the City of Münster, German Association of Cities
• Dr. Olaf Gericke, District Administrator of the District of Warendorf , German County Association
• Thomas Schmidt, Mayor oft he City of Teltow, German Association of Towns and Municipalities
• Ulrike Franzke, Cologne Municipal Drainage Services, Association of Municipal Enterprises
• Olena Zhuk, Chair of Zaporizhia Oblast Council, Ukrainian Association of Rayon and Oblast Councils
• Bogdan Kelichavyi, Mayor of the city of Kopychyntsi, All-Ukrainian Association of United Territorial Communities
• Nataliia Lasarenko, Association of Ukrainian Cities
• Ivan Slobodianyk, Chief executive officer of the All-Ukrainian Association of Communities
• Dmytro Novytskyi, President of the Ukrainian Association of Water Supply and Sewage Companies ‘Ukrvodokanalekologiya’

6:45 PM – Bus transfer to the evening reception

7:30 PM – Evening reception organised by the City of Münster at the LWL Museum of Art and Culture

9:15 PM – Short tours to sights of Münster

8:00 AM – Admittance and Registration until 9:00 AM

• Market of opportunities
• Galley Walk

9:30 AM – Greeting

• Markus Lewe, Mayor of the City of Münster
• Serhii Morhunov, Mayor of the city of Vinnytsia
• Krzysztof Stanowski, Deputy Mayor of the City of Lublin

10:00 AM – Market of opportunities

10:15 AM – Panel Discussion: Local Challenges Three Years After the Start of the War of Aggression

• Oleksii Riabykin, Deputy Minister for the Reconstruction of Ukraine - Minister for the Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine (online)
• Antje Grotheer, Chairwoman of the (CoR) Working Group on Ukraine, President of the Bremen State Parliament
• Constanze Neher, Head of department of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
• Vitalii Belobrov, Deputy Mayor of the City of Cherson

11:15 AM – Coffee break

11:45 AM – Working Formats for Participants

• Decentralized, Efficient, and Renewable: Municipal Energy Solutions in Times of War

Since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion, Ukraine's infrastructure, and in particular its energy supply, has been under attack from the Russian army. As the most local unit of the state, the municipalities are affected too. How do they deal with this and how do they ensure the energy supply for their population? What potential do decentralised and renewable energy supplies and energy efficiency measures offer? Which advisory and funding programmes are available and what can German municipalities learn from their Ukrainian partners?

• Municipal Enterprises: Synergy Potential in Partnerships (only in German and Ukrainian)
• Civil Protection: Examples and Approaches in Aid Deliveries and Capacity Building (only in German and Ukrainian)
• Rehabilitative Health: The Importance of Partnerships for Healthcare in Times of Crisis (only in German and Ukrainian)
• Cooperation with Civil Society: Added Value in Partnership Work (only in German and Ukrainian)
• Parallel: Step by Step to a German-Ukrainian Municipal Partnership – Development, Added Value, and Support Options (Online format for interested municipalities who are not yet part of the network) (only in German and Ukrainian)

1:15 PM – Lunch Break

2:45 PM – Online-Keynote from Olexandra Matwijtschuk, Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Chairwoman of the Centre for Civil Liberties (CCL)

3:15 PM – Panel Discussion: Ukraine’s Path to the EU

• Reem Alabali Radovan, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) (online)
• Serhii Hupiak, Deputy Chairman of the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption of Ukraine
• Antonella Valmorbida, Secretary General of the Association of Local Democracy Agencies (ALDA)
• Mykhailo Lavriv, Chairman of the Kalush district council

4:15 PM – Coffee break

4:45 PM – Discussion on the Challenges of Russian Disinformation

• Iryna Shum, Deputy Director for Public Diplomacy and Communications, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (requested)
• Tamina Kutscher, Journalist

5:30 PM – Outlook and review of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome and Verona

• Davide La Cecilia, Special Representative of the Italian Government for the Reconstruction of Ukraine (online)
• Lyudmila Prokopechko, Head of the Dobroslavska territorial community
• Denys Korotenko, Mayor of the City of Shyroke
  

6:30 PM – Dinner at the Congress Hall Premises

8:00 PM – „Drink after Dinner“ hosted by the City of Münster at Dockland Beach

8:00 AM – Admittance and Registration until 9:00 AM

• Market of opportunities
• Galley Walk

9:30 AM – Opening Third Conference Day

9:45 AM – Keynote Speech A New Coordinate System for European Cooperation: The Example of German-Polish-Ukrainian Municipal Partnerships

• Klaudia Hanisch, Research Associate, German Poland Institute

10:00 AM – Panel Discussion: Dynamics and Opportunities of Trilateral Municipal Partnerships

• Frédéric Blanc, Sub-prefect, Deputy General Secretary for the National Commission for Decentralized Fooperation, France
• Michał Sobol, Senior Specialist in the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation and Development, Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy of the Republic of Poland
• Thomas Berling, Mayor of the City of Nordhorn (partnership with UA/NL)
• Oleh Vasylyshyn, Mayor of the City of Schtschyrez (partnership with Gudensberg/Jelcz-Laskowice, PL)
  

11:00 AM – Coffee Break

11:15 AM – Workshops and Open Formats for Participants

• Trilateral Partnerships: A Driver for Ukraine’s EU Integration

Europe is growing from below: We will take a look at how municipal partnerships can act as a motor for Ukraine's EU integration. Triangular partnerships between German, Ukrainian and other EU municipalities enable a practical exchange on topics such as climate protection, administrative modernisation and sustainability. Using the example of Lower Saxony - Mykolayiv in the EU project ‘GreenGov’, we will discuss how municipal cooperation strengthens European integration in concrete terms - and which role partner countries such as France, Croatia or Romania play in this.

• Urban Resilience: What Is It and How Can We Strengthen It? (only in German and Ukrainian)
• EU Accession of Ukraine: Involvement of Municipalities (only in German and Ukrainian)
• Digital Transformation in Municipalities: Opportunities and Limitations (only in German and Ukrainian)
• Strong Integrity: Anti-Corruption Prevention and Transparent Reconstruction for EU Integration (only in German and Ukrainian)

12:45 PM – Experience Meets New Beginnings – Old and New Partnerships Hand in Hand

• Niels Albers, Head of the Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW) at Engagement Global and Team of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

1:15 PM – Lunch and Market of opportunities

2:30 PM – Parallel Expert Excursions

• Inclusive Urban Planning
• Economic Promotion in Münster
• Energy Security and Supply
• Reconstruction of Münster
• Neighborhood Planning and Citizen Participation
• Sustainable Mobility
• Parallel: Open Space for Exchange Between Partnerships

7:00 PM – Dinner at Restaurant A2 by the Lake and at Restaurant Spatzl

• Please note that you will be required to register daily when entering the Halle Münsterland. Please bring an identification document with you and have your personal QR code for the registration desk ready, which you will receive by e-mail.
• To ensure that everything runs smoothly, please arrive early and note that the registration desk closes 30 minutes before the start of the main programme on all three days of the conference.
• Please note that for security reasons there will be a daily bag check on site.

• Hotel rooms will be made available to all participants. You will receive information about your hotel by e-mail. Please don't book a hotel for yourself.
• Depending on the location of your hotel, we have organised shuttle buses to take you from your hotel to the event venues and back. All information on the times and meeting points for the shuttle buses as well as directions to your hotel and Halle Münsterland can be found here:
  Directions to hotels and information on shuttle buses
• You will also receive a ticket for public transport in Münster by e-mail.

• The conference will take place at the Messe und Congress Centrum Halle Münsterland (address: Albersloher Weg 32, 48155 Münster).
• Halle Münsterland is a 15-minute walk from Münster Central Station. Please use the Bremer Platz exit and then follow the road to the right across the Hansaring/Hafenstraße junction.
• You can also take bus lines 6, 8 and 17 from bus platform C2 (exit City). Lines 6 and 8 stop directly in front of the MCC, the bus stop is called ‘Messe und Congress Centrum Halle Münsterland’. For line 17 you have to get off at the bus stop ‘Stadtwerke/Cineplex’.

We will be happy to reimburse your travel expenses in accordance with the guidelines listed here:

• Your hotel room was booked free of charge by the SKEW if you have indicated this in your registration. Please do not book your own hotel room. There are allotments for all participants. You will receive further information regarding your hotel via e-mail.
• We will reimburse 2nd class train journeys (including seat reservations) with Deutsche Bahn, as well as journeys on local public transport (bus, tram or metro). All original receipts must be submitted. Please note that you will be provided with a ticket for Münster’s public transport network via e-mail.
• Use of a car will be reimbursed at a rate of €0.20 per km, up to a maximum distance of 650km (max. €130). Please provide evidence of the most direct route. This will be checked using an online route planner before payment. Only whole kilometres will be reimbursed. Car parking charges will be reimbursed up to a maximum of €15 per day. Original receipts will also be required for this.
• Taxi costs will only be accepted under exceptional circumstances and for justifiable reasons (physical disability, if public transport is unavailable for a prolonged period of time, or for journeys before 6.00am or after 10.00pm).
• Costs for flights within Germany can only be reimbursed subject to prior approval/booking by the SKEW.
• For international flights the tickets (economy class) can be booked exclusively by the SKEW. Please contact us if these tickets are needed.

Please submit your travel expenses following these steps:

• The travel expense report must be submitted to the SKEW by e-mail to konferenz-de.skew@engagement-global.de by 2 July 2025 at the latest. It is sufficient to attach a scan of all receipts to the email. It is not necessary to send them by post.
• Please use this document for submitting your request for reimbursement of travel expenses: Travel Expenses Report

For all interested parties and those who are unable to travel, the programme on the main stage will be broadcast in a livestream including interpretation.

To the livestream