Almost all political forces going to the Parliament declare support for local self-government and a course on decentralisation of powers and resources. In this issue, the new Verkhovna Rada and the future Government already have something to rely on – we have our own five-year experience of decentralising finances and forming capable hromadas, considered to be successful by 60% of Ukrainians. Our reform is also supported by the international community, including the Council of Europe, which enjoys enormous authority in the world in terms of local self-government development issues. All this gives hope that decentralisation in Ukraine will continue, and will be completed as planned by the end of 2020.

This was informed by Vyacheslav Nehoda, First Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, during a meeting with Andreas Kiefer, Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

“I hope that the new Parliament will introduce changes to the Constitution in the part of decentralisation, on which we have been insisting for all five years. We can continue the reform without them, of course, but we can hardly complete it. While oblast and rayon state administrations will fulfill not characteristic to them local self-government functions, and oblast and rayon councils will not have executive committees, it will be impossible to create efficient self-government system at all levels in the country,” said Vyacheslav Nehoda.

Andreas Kiefer, in turn, noted that Ukraine has made significant progress in bringing Ukraine’s governance system in place closer to the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. According to him, Ukrainian reform does not repeat any of the European practices, moves in a democratic scenario and has high chances of being successfully completed. “We are watching and helping Ukraine on the decentralisation path, we have a joint plan of action in this direction, which we successfully perform together. I am sure that your achievements should become irreversible, because this reform is laying the foundations that guarantee a successful future to Ukraine,” said the Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.