A decisive step in 2018 is a large-scale continuation of the decentralisation reform and definition of the its completion horizon in 2020. We have an ambitious task: already in 2020 local elections should take place on a new territorial basis. Thus, we must mobilise efforts of all the participants of the process – central and local authorities, the parliament, local self-government bodies and all international partners. Already in January we will have a joint operational plan for fulfilling tasks with international partners, informed Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, in the Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government.

The official said that so far there have been 874 AHs formed, of which 665 AHs have direct interbudgetary relations. Already 16 oblast cities have joined the amalgamation process this year. And this shows the high pace of decentralisation. There appear leaders on the ground, who are ready to assume new powers, opportunities and responsibilities.

“By 2020 a basic level of local self-government, i.e. hromadas, must be formed in Ukraine. Therefore, our priority task for 2019 is 100% formation of perspective plans. This work should involve local hromadas, oblast councils and oblast state administrations. On the other hand, we, as the Government, set ourselves the task to model the most effective prospective plans of capable hromadas to the oblast territory. This will allow us to choose the perfect model of a capable hromada that could assume powers and use all opportunities of local self-government development,” said Hennadii Zubko.

He said that such perspective plans should be formed in the Zakarpattia, Kyiv Oblasts and Crimea. “There have been currently 1285 hromadas formed according to perspective plans. And we see that when closing “white spots” (rayons with no AHs formed) there is an opportunity to form 1450 AHs. But, again, I emphasise that such a result is possible due to the decisions of the oblast councils in course of compilation of perspective plans,” noted Mr. Zubko.

According to him, the priority tasks for 2019-2020 include:

• Approval of a new territorial basis for the activities of state authorities at the hromada level (approval of hromadas’ territories of all oblasts; maximum fostering of voluntary amalgamation and accession, especially to cities of oblast significance);
• Approval of a new territorial basis for the activities of the authorities at the rayon level (modeling of the administrative-territorial structure of the rayon level; formation of administrative districts as the basis for future districts; approval of territories of rayons in all oblasts);
• Transfer (decentralisation) of executive powers to local self-government bodies and their differentiation among levels;
• Creation of an appropriate resource base to exercise LSG powers;
• Formation of an effective system of service in local self-government bodies, quality of management;
• Effective state surveillance system;
• Effective citizen participation system.