East Europe Foundation, within the framework of the “Phoenix: The Power of Communities” project and with the support of the European Union, has developed an analytical report on public participation in the implementation of the Ukraine Facility and the Ukraine Plan at the local level.

The full-scale war has transformed the conditions under which Ukraine simultaneously addresses the tasks of defense, recovery, and accelerated European integration. In this context, European Union support has ceased to be purely external assistance and has acquired the character of long-term political and institutional support that influences the logic of reforms and the architecture of future reconstruction. It is from this perspective that the Ukraine Facility instrument should be viewed, as it combines financial support, reform commitments, and Ukraine’s preparation for EU membership.

The Ukraine Facility is not limited to macro-financial support — it forms a framework within which reconstruction, sectoral reforms, good governance, decentralization, and citizen participation appear as interconnected components of a single process. The Ukraine Plan, the programmatic basis of the Ukraine Facility, serves simultaneously as a roadmap for transformation and as a tool for assessing the state’s progress on the path to EU membership.

At the same time, official EU documents on the Ukraine Facility often use complex legal and procedural language, which complicates their practical use — not only for the general public, but also for part of the expert community, especially at the local level. That is why this report aims to translate the normative and political logic of the instrument into an accessible framework — for civil society organizations, local self-government bodies, experts, and all those working on reforms and recovery at the local level.