Deputy Head of mission in Poltava: a push for reform
September 24, 2015
“The key word is trust”: Hugues Fantou, EUAM’s Deputy Head of Mission, underlined the priority of restoring people’s confidence in their law enforcement agencies, while meeting this morning Valeriy Golovko, Head of Poltava’s State Regional Administration. “We are ready for any reform,” replied the latter, setting the objective of “becoming a pilot region” in this process.
The issue of “community policing” was among the core points of the meeting, setting the potential for further cooperation with the European Union Advisory Mission, whose Regional Outreach officers are being deployed in the region since the beginning of September.
“The key principle is subsidiarity, what can be done locally should be done locally,” argued Mr. Fantou, reminding that decentralisation, in different ways, is a process that all EU member States are witnessing. “There’s no ‘European’ experience, but many ones – noted EUAM’s Deputy Head, using the metaphor of “tailor-made dress”, to explain his Mission’s advisory approach.
Hugues Fantou today is holding further discussions about the main challenges of the reforming process also with other main regional stakeholders, including Chief Prosecutor Sergiy Popov, Chief Police Oleg Bekh, Free Legal Aid agencies, NGOs such as “Light of Hope” and “Institute of Analysis and Advocacy”.
Furthermore, the regional TV station, “Ltava”, will host Mr. Fantou this afternoon for an interview.
