Spring National Assembly 2026

Six months after the network voted in Chernivtsi to admit ESN Odesa as a full section, the section welcomed ESN Ukraine to its own city. From 22 to 24 May 2026, Odesa hosted the Spring National Assembly — the first national assembly organised by ESN Odesa.

Volunteers from sections across Ukraine were joined by candidate sections, guests from three European countries and the President of ESN International. The Assembly also took one of the most important governance decisions of the year: the adoption of ESN Ukraine's new strategic framework.

A strategy shaped by volunteers

Delegates adopted the ESN Ukraine Three-Year Strategy and Action Plan 2026/2027. The documents reached the vote after several rounds of revision by the National Board, which worked to take every proposal into account and to adapt the texts to the actual needs of the network's volunteers.

The new framework follows the ESN Ukraine Strategy 2024/2026. Two weeks before the vote, on Europe Day, President Dariia Beliaieva had outlined the organisation's current priorities in Kyiv — among them supporting Ukrainian students abroad, promoting academic mobility and Erasmus+ in Ukraine, advancing the internationalisation of Ukrainian higher education and, looking further ahead, restoring international mobility in Ukraine after the war.

Workshops and Erasmus+ opportunities

The first day of the Assembly was streamed on YouTube by its chairing team. Much of the programme was devoted to learning from one another. Sections led their own workshops — ESN Chernivtsi, for example, ran a session sharing its experience and ideas with the rest of the network. The National Erasmus+ Office in Ukraine held an information session on individual Erasmus+ opportunities as part of the Assembly.

During the same days in Odesa, ESN Ukraine also held its Erasmus+ Career Fair, organised in cooperation with Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University and the National Erasmus+ Office. It brought together more than 60 participants from six Ukrainian cities and 18 companies, and is covered in a separate report on this website.

Meeting the people who started it all

One of the most memorable moments of the weekend was a meeting with the founders of ESN Kyiv, the first ESN section in Ukraine. Tetyana Fedorchuk, Oleksandra Tyrkalova and Kateryna Kubrak told participants how they set out to bring the Erasmus Student Network to Ukraine. ESN Kyiv received candidate status in September 2018, and Ukraine became a full member of the network at the Council of National Representatives in Palermo on 2 June 2019.

By May 2026, seven years on, ESN Ukraine brought together five full sections and two candidate sections. One of those candidate sections, ESN Ternopil, attended the Assembly and later thanked ESN Odesa for the organisation, the interactive activities and a city tour — hoping one day to welcome the network to Ternopil as a full section. That moment came five months later.

International guests in wartime conditions

The Assembly welcomed Frank Rijnberg, President of ESN FHNW (Switzerland), Daniel Casas, Events Manager of ESN Santiago de Compostela (Spain), and Vira Mykhailova, Partnership Coordinator of ESN Estonia, who shared their experience and their perspective on the network's ideas. Simone Lepore, President of ESN International, also addressed the participants.

The weekend took place under wartime conditions. At one point, participants spent the night together in a shelter — and were up early the next morning to continue the programme. ESN Ukraine has since thanked ESN Odesa for creating such memories for the network while facing danger and destruction every day.

Before closing, the Assembly announced the host of its next edition: ESN Kyiv, which went on to organise the Autumn National Assembly in October 2026.