It is nice to note that the joint work of the Department of Strategic Development and Investment and the Department of International Relations of the Rivne City Council's Executive Committee in the direction of the promotion of the Rivne City Territorial Community at the international level is yielding results!
As early as 2014, the Department of Strategic Development and Investment started work on establishing cooperation between the municipality and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. And already in April 2015, at the regular session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, by the decision of the committee on social issues, health care and sustainable development of the Council of Europe, the city of Rivne was awarded an honorary European Diploma, the first step in the system of awards of the Council of Europe.
Based on the results of annual promotional work, as well as the introduction of new standards in the work of local authorities, such as openness, accessibility, orientation to the needs of every citizen, as well as the promotion of European values, the subcommittee on the Prize of Europe decided to award the city of Rivne the Honorary Flag. which is the second level in the system of awards of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. It is noteworthy that the city of Rivne won together with the capital - Kyiv also received the Honorary Banner!
It should be noted that this time our city shared the award among the municipalities of France, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Turkey (8 Honorable Mentions), Germany, Poland, Spain, Turkey (6 Honorary Flags) and Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey (12 European Diplomas).
The Europe Prize was founded in 1955 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg to award cities and municipalities for the active promotion of European values, participation in partnership projects, exchanges in the field of education, culture and sports, and the organization of European events. According to the PACE regulations, in the case of being awarded an Honorary Flag or an Honorary Distinction, the winners organize a public ceremony in their city, where a representative of the Council of Europe ceremoniously hands over the symbolic flag to the city authorities. Such a ceremony took place in Rivne, where the Honorary Flag of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was officially presented to Rivne Mayor Oleksandr Tretyak by a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Member of the Permanent Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Yulia Ovchinnikova during the City Day celebrations!
We congratulate all residents of the Rivne city territorial community on the awarding of such a high honor to the city of Rivne!