We must try to help the war-torn Ukrainians at the level of local authorities by giving them hope for a brighter future through new accommodation projects, said Andres Jaadla, former mayor of Rakvere and member of the European Committee of the Regions, in an interview with LETA. He stressed that Europe must also tackle the growing accommodation crisis, as people in many places can no longer afford to live in their cities.

What are the main issues on your agenda at the moment?

I am a former Rakvere mayor and currently a member of Rakvere City Council and a member of the Committee of the Regions. I also work for the largest Estonian accommodation organization and I am a board member of Housing Europe, the largest accommodation organization in Europe. In this organization, as well as in the Committee of the Regions, I have the opportunity to express my views on the future of accommodation policy at the local and regional level in relation to what we recommend to the European Commission and the European Parliament to do in the next period.

Among my topics there is also the painful question of what people can realistically afford today. We see, for example, that prices in the center of Riga are constantly rising and that people are having to move out of Riga.

At the level of the Committee of the Regions, we represent more than a million local and regional politicians across Europe. That is a huge network of local councilors. It is about how we are able to represent our collective voice, how we use our collective influence to solve our problems. The European Union (EU) often adopts ambitious programs that we will then have to implement at local level. Whether it is accommodation or anything else. That is why it is so important that we have a representative body like the Committee of the Regions, which makes our voices much more visible in Europe.

Do you also work with the future member states?

Yes, we also help countries that will soon become EU member states, such as Albania, to make their voices heard. I was recently in Tirana and saw many of the challenges Albania is facing on its way to the EU. Like all the Balkan countries.

We can judge these countries by our own example. Think of the changes over the last 20 years - without the EU, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania might be very different countries. We see these changes everywhere. I can see very well how Cesis has changed, how much the city has developed. I follow it all the time, because Cesis Mayor Janis Rozenbergs, and I are good friends. We see the same in Rakvere, where the EU investments amount to EUR 50 million - the city's three-year budget.

You are also a part of the Committee of the Regions' Ukraine Support Group.

We are looking for solutions to crisis situations at pan-European level. One such crisis is migration, which has become complicated also due to the war in Ukraine. We need to consider scenarios for action by both local and regional authorities. The Committee of the Regions has support groups for each EU candidate country, and Ukraine is one of them.

In May, we visited Kyiv and assessed the situation in the area of accommodation. We see that many residential buildings have been destroyed, but we also see the future of this country - it is even hard to believe that, at the time when cities are being destroyed to the ground in eastern Ukraine, intensive reconstruction work is taking place in the vicinity of Kyiv. Many buildings are being renovated and people are returning to their homes. I saw hope in the eyes of these people. We must certainly be able to help them at local authority level. Many of our municipalities are helping them. At the level of the Committee of the Regions, we are discussing how we can more effectively steer this whole movement in the right direction to help Ukrainian cities in their reconstruction work.

For example, we have a project in Estonia with three Ukrainian cities - Mykolaiv, Zhytomyr and Kharkiv - where we involve urban architects, and they choose two buildings in each city that they want to rebuild after the war. The architects have already drawn up sketch designs. In this way and in various other ways, we have to give hope to local people who are going through a very difficult time. In Ukraine, I saw that it is impossible to sleep when the air-raid alarm goes off three times in one night. The whole nation has not slept for two years. The experience of these people cannot be described. We must help them.

What are the main challenges in this process?

The destruction of energy and water supply networks is, of course, a huge challenge. For example, the architect of the city of Mykolaiv told us that after destroying the water supply system, they have to resort to purifying the sea water because the city is close to the sea. Otherwise, the residents of the apartment blocks would not be able to use toilets. This water would not be fit for drinking but would be a temporary step until the water supply system can be restored.

Winter is approaching, but the energy supply network is severely damaged throughout Ukraine. This winter is going to be hard in Ukraine.

Are Ukrainian refugees in our countries also involved in aid projects for Ukrainian municipalities?

Yes, of course. There are many Ukrainian refugees in the Baltic states and Poland, and some of them are also actively involved in aid projects.

Are we in the Baltic countries proud of individual projects or can we say that we are very active in helping Ukraine as a whole?

We are quite active at both local and regional level, and the Estonian Association of Local Governments is also active. I know that the Latvian Association of Local Governments is active as well, and so are the Lithuanians. Of course, the Eastern EU countries understand the situation in Ukraine much better than Portugal, so we have much closer links and connections with the Ukrainian people.

How is the issue of insurance of foreign investments for projects implemented in a war situation being addressed?

This is a difficult question. In Kyiv, I saw huge projects being implemented very quickly - within ten months an entire village of 400 buildings was built for people who had lost everything. This is a huge investment, the likes of which we do not see in Riga or Tallinn. It means that people believe in peace soon. They understand that there is a risk, that they can build a house today and tomorrow it can be destroyed. There are no guarantees or insurance during the war, only hope. However, the pace of reconstruction projects in wartime is very surprising.

Is it clear to people in Ukraine that projects are supported by the EU or by a particular city or country?

In May, we visited an aid project in the Kyiv area, where housing was being built from containers for homeless people. This project was implemented with the support from Lithuania, and this fact was clearly stated and well known to everyone. I think that the locals see things like this. We in the Baltic states are used to EU funding and we are not too interested where the money comes from, because we have been in the EU for 20 years. In Ukraine, meanwhile, the money is much more personalized, people see that the aid has come from Latvia, for example, from Rakvere's sister city Cesis or other cities.

Poland provides much help, for example the city of Gdansk, whose mayor is also in the Ukraine Support Group. Many other cities help through bilateral cooperation.

We hope that one day the war will end. Wars always end. In Ukraine it is very clear that most Ukrainians want to return to their homes. They are ready to rebuild this country, but they definitely need our help in rebuilding their houses.

Were the twinning projects with Ukraine active in the Baltic states also before the war?

Yes, many projects were quite active. For example, we had a Ukrainian cultural association in Rakvere, whose members had successfully integrated into Estonia, so I think we were quite friendly even before the war.