A wide public discussion must be a guarantee of the future Constitutional amendments in terms of decentralization to be accepted by the society and will make it possible to successfully complete decentralization in Ukraine.

‘The public discussion must help all of us find a balance in relations of the central authorities and local self-government. We want to have powerful local self-government. Hromada heads want the state not to interfere into their work. And it must be the case. But all of us want to live in a powerful state. Therefore some functions related to the national security, decisions legality, foreign policy must be exclusively in the competence of the central authorities. In such issues the local self-government must completely rely upon the relevant authorities but not try to solve them independently. To create a new, more efficient system of organization and cooperation of all levels of the power, to find balance of competences – these are the tasks which are impossible to do without amendments to the Constitution in terms of decentralisation’, - said Denys Shmyhal, the Vice Prime-Minister, Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine.