Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland is confident in the positive aspect of decentralization in Ukraine and underlines that decentralization does not mean federalization.
“Decentralization is not federalization. Today every European country to a certain extent decentralizes its power. And this is made for the benefit of the society … But in Ukraine the matter concerns not only decentralization but also a special status for Donbas, which means decentralization of power but not federalization,” he said in an interview with the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia weekly.
“Where there is no decentralization or the transfer of authority to the local level, there appears more desire to secede. When local communities get more power, then it is easier to hold the society together. This is the lesson learned anywhere in Europe. Centralization, on the contrary, could strengthen separatist sentiment,” he said.
Jagland visited Ukraine on March 17-18.
