Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference ―Modern Science and Education‖ (January 5-7, 2026) / Publisher website: www.naukainfo.com. – Liverpool, United Kingdom, 2026. – 174 p.

76 3. Erosion of National Ownership. Excessive activity of special representatives in forming the list of priority recovery objects may lead to Ukrainian state institutions losing their role as the primary client, turning into technical executors of external strategies [3, p. 56]. For a deeper understanding of the problem, it is worth considering the approaches of two key partners:  The US Case: The activities of the US Special Representative for Ukraine's Economic Recovery (e.g., Penny Pritzker and her successors). The legal basis is the delegation of authority by the Department of State. The primary format is mediation between the American private sector and the Government of Ukraine. Public administration in this case is implemented through pressure on institutional reforms (anti-corruption, courts) as a prerequisite for access to capital [10].  The German Case: Special Envoy of the Federal Government for the Reconstruction of Ukraine (Jochen Flasbarth). The mandate is integrated into the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The focus is on multi-level governance by engaging German municipalities in partnerships with Ukrainian cities. This creates a different coordination model – decentralized – which requires high administrative capacity from Ukrainian local self-government bodies, which is often lacking. At the local level, the status of special representatives remains legally blurred. Their activities are regulated mainly by framework memoranda and Resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine that govern the work of the Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform (the so-called "Financial Ramstein"). However, there is no clear regulation of the interaction between special representatives and specialized agencies (for example, the State Agency for Restoration). This results in special representatives having significant political influence without direct legal responsibility for the outcomes of project implementation. To overcome destructive complementarity, a strategy of "centralized decentralization" must be implemented. A key tool should be the DREAM digital