Directorate-General for Energy,
Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,
European Commission,
Rue de la Loi 15/ Wetstraat 15,
1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, Belgium
Dear Ms. Ditte Juul Jørgensen,
Dear Mr. Gert Jan Koopman
We, the undersigned heads of Ukrainian coal communities and heads of NGOs working on just transition, are thankful for the possibility of being continuously involved in the activities of the Initiative for coal regions in transition in Western Balkans and Ukraine. So, it was quite regrettable to hear that it will stop functioning in its current form in 2024, as announced at the last Annual meeting.
We want to stress that the Initiative has helped us considerably since its establishment three years ago. It gave us real opportunities for networking, knowledge exchange, and learning through visiting other coal regions to see the examples of transformation with our own eyes so that we could learn whether similar solutions could be implemented in our communities.
During the last Annual meeting, it was mentioned that a separate Initiative for Western Balkans would be established, while nothing was mentioned about the future of the Initiative for Ukrainian coal regions.
We are adamant that the European Commission’s support for just transition processes in Ukraine should also be continued through a similar Initiative or other format.
Given Ukraine’s candidate status for accession to the European Union and the inevitable start of the membership negotiations, we insist on the importance of our European integration as a foundation for long-term development and a successful transition to a just and sustainable fossil-free future. We realise that our communities face significant challenges caused by the Russian full-scale invasion, but we still fully stand by our efforts1 to plan and implement just transition measures.
We would appreciate any form of the Initiative for coal regions to be in place which would still support Ukrainian coal regions in our just transition journey, considering our challenges and needs. We, Ukrainians, don’t want to be left behind.
Signatories:
Myrnohrad City Military Administration
Yurii Kliuchka
Dobropillia city military administration
Andrii Bondarenko
Vuhledar city military administration
Serhiy Novikov
Novovolynsk city territorial community
Borys Karpus
Chervonohrad city territorial community
Andrii Zalivskyi
Ternivka city territorial community
Vitaliy Tarelkin
Lytove village territorial community
Olena Kasyanchuk
Pavlohrad city territorial community
Anatolii Vershyna
Verbkivska rural territorial community
Vitalii Kryvoshei
Mykolaivka village territorial community, Synelnykivskyi district, Dnipropetrovsk region
Viktor Odoievtsev
Pokrovsk city military administration
Serhii Dobriak
Hirske City Military Administration
Oleksiy Babchenko
NGO “Territory of Sustainable Development”
Hanna Telychko
NGO “Pravopolis”
Valeriia Tishchenko
NGO Luhansk Human rights centre “Alternativa”
Valeriy Novykov
NGO Centre for Environmental Initiatives “Ecoaction”
Olga Polunina
Download the letter:
Letter to European Commission on support for just transition processes in Ukraine (PDF)