The current law of 1995 On the Status of Mountain Settlements in Ukraine fails to encourage mountain municipalities to develop but has become a reason for such settlements decay. That is why it is extremely important to change approaches to such territories’ maintenance.

It was claimed by Deputy Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine Vyacheslav Nehoda during the VI-th Forum «Efficient local administration as a precondition of a democratic and law-governed state».

«The Ukrainian Carpathians cover four oblasts and 715 settlements, 279 of them being hard to get at - located 600 m above the sea. Since 1995 the state has been maintaining the territories by providing their residents with additional perks and subsidies. Has it facilitated the municipality development? Of course, it hasn’t, as even if an investor came there, they wanted to pay taxes somewhere else on a common basis, rather than bearing additional burden. It resulted in allegedly right law social orientation creating preconditions for the territories depression, contributing to their lack of motivation for development», - claimed Vyacheslav Nehoda.