On 13 August, Poltava hosted the public event “Integrity in Action: the Experience of Poltava Region Communities on the Path to the EU,” which brought together local government, experts and the public.
The EUACI shares best practices developed and implemented across its Integrity Cities. Oleh Chernenko, Senior Project Manager for Integrity Cities at the EUACI, spoke about the experience of cooperation with the Poltava City Council, which joined Integrity Cities in 2025. The city has adopted a Procedure for preparing draft regulatory acts and a Regulation on its geoinformation system, established a digital development and digitalisation unit, and restored public access to its urban planning cadastre geoportal.
The team of the Transparency International Ukraine “Transparent Cities” presented the results of the research on Poltava, Kremenchuk, Horishni Plavni, Lubny and Myrhorod as part of the European City Index. Analysts concluded that the region’s cities have already become considerably better at disclosing information, but accountability, work with open data, the explanation of budget decisions, and reporting remain weaker areas.
The discussion also touched separately on how the authorities communicated with residents during the war. If decisions are not explained clearly and on time, the information vacuum is quickly filled by other sources. That is why it is important for city authorities to work not only with what they want to communicate, but also with what the community actually has a demand for.
The EUACI continues to support cities in implementing tools for transparent, accountability and integrity governance.
