The round table was held at the Kharkiv Local Government Development Centre, established with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme and MinRegion, during which participants discussed the results of implementing the reform of local self-government and decentralisation in the Kharkiv Oblast in 2018 and planning of the joint activities for 2019.

Serhii Chernov, head of the Kharkiv Oblast Council, noted that decentralisation is an irreversible path: “No force majeure circumstances will delay the reform process. On the contrary - the more challenges, the more reforms.”

“Today’s challenges are that the reform of local government and decentralisation go ahead of changes in legislation. The European Charter of Local Self-Government features all steps of the government to make the Charter a local law. Currently there are 876 AHs in Ukraine, which make up 68.2% of the Perspective plans approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. By the way, in 2020, those who are still contemplating over the reform, including the Kharkiv Oblast, will no longer have such a privilege as voluntary amalgamation. Therefore, in course of this year, it is necessary to accelerate the process of new AHs' formation in the Kharkiv Oblast, despite the turbulence through the dual elections of the President of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada”, said Serhii Chernov.

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