An official meeting of Polish and Ukrainian local deputies took place in the city of Lublin, Republic of Poland, within the framework of a project to improve cooperation between local government bodies of the border regions of Ukraine and Poland in connection with Poland's accession to the European Union in May 2004, reports the press service of the Volyn organization of the UNP. The Ukrainian delegation was represented by deputies of the "Our Ukraine" factions of the Lviv and Volyn regional councils. On the Polish side, deputies of the Lublin Voivodeship sejmik and the Lublin city council took part in the working meeting. The Ukrainian delegation held talks with the vice-voivode, the chairman of the sejmik and the marshal of the voivodeship, and representatives of Polish political parties and public organizations. As reported by a participant in the meeting, deputy of the Volyn regional council, first deputy head of the Volyn regional organization of the Ukrainian People's Party Mykola Pasaman, "at the meeting, issues of cooperation between the two neighboring states were discussed, in particular, the upcoming elections of the president of Ukraine. Taking into account the specifics of previous elections in Ukraine, I proposed to ensure the presidential election campaign in October 2004 with observers from the Polish state and EU countries in the number of 200 thousand." In addition, with the marshal of the Lublin Voivodeship Henryk Makarewicz, the issue of Ukrainian burials and ensuring access to Ukrainian cemeteries on Polish territory was discussed.
Reference: The program for local self-government bodies is implemented by the European Institute for Democracy Support (Warsaw) and is carried out with the support of the British Embassy. This was the first part of the project. The project itself is designed for 1.5 years, during which a series of trips by Ukrainian local deputies to Poland, a visit by Polish experts to the border regions, as well as a three-week "internship" of one of the Ukrainian deputies in the Polish Sejm of one of the voivodeships are planned. Also, within the framework of the project, two more parallel programs are being implemented — for Polish and Ukrainian border guards and representatives of law enforcement agencies.