​On 24 September, Mr Emil Drăghici. Mayor of Vulcana-Băi, Romania attended the 8th annual meeting of the Conference of the Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP) where, together with representatives of local authorities from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine he discussed bilateral municipal cooperation, economic cooperation and development at local level and ways to engage young citizens and deal with disinformation on online platforms and in the media.

On the next day, 25 September, Mr Stanisław Szwabski from the Gdynia City Council, Poland attended the 5th meeting of the European Committee of the Regions' Task Force on Ukraine which saw a debate on how to encourage local economic development and gain the trust of European and Ukrainian SMEs. The members were also presented the results of a peer-to-peer cooperation programme between EU and Ukrainian local authorities.

Set up in 2011, CORLEAP is the political forum of local and regional authorities from the European Union and the Eastern Partnership countries. The Ukraine Task Force was established in 2015 with the aim to intensify bilateral relations and provide political and technical support to Ukrainian partners at the local level. In March 2018, the initiative was complemented by a peer-to-peer cooperation programme launched with the support of the U-LEAD programme and its implementer, the German Development Agency GIZ.