A new task for the new Parliament and the Government will be to complete the creation of a new administrative and territorial structure of the country. This is scheduled to take place before the next local elections in October 2020. Therefore, time is short, but fortunately, almost everything is ready to make the right decisions, while only political will is needed.

This was informed by Vyacheslav Nehoda, First Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, at the meeting on discussion of the draft law on the principles of the administrative and territorial structure of Ukraine.

“We have heard from representatives of the political forces planning to form a majority in the new Parliament that they are ready to complete the reform of local self-government and territorial organisation of power by October 2020, as well as about the need to create a new effective administrative and territorial basis. This is in line with the vision of the Ministry, experts and international partners. But to make the plans happen, quick and thoughtful political decisions are needed. And we are ready to propose drafts for most of these decisions,” said Vyacheslav Nehoda.

According to him, one of the priorities is the draft law "On the Principles of the Administrative and Territorial Structure of Ukraine", developed by MinRegion in 2016. “It was adopted by the Government and approved by the relevant parliamentary committee, but has not been considered by the Verkhovna Rada. Now the review procedure will have to start over. But we hope that it will cause much less discussions and that they will take place in parallel with the discussion of another important draft law – on the new administrative and territorial structure of the country,” said the First Deputy Minister.

He recalled that at the central and local level, discussions have been recently ongoing on ways to complete the formation of capable hromadas and start reforming the rayon level.

“The discussions no longer concern whether or not this should be done – the participants are more interested in how and when it will take place. That is why, in autumn, when the new Parliament and the Government begin to work, we will be ready to come up with proposals and draft decisions on this issue. The time for their adoption is very limited, so together with more fundamental, more theoretical questions, we plan to propose specific options for creating a new modern administrative and territorial structure of the country,” Vyacheslav Nehoda summed up.