According to Yuriy Hanushchak, expert on the local self-government reform, the draft law “On the Voluntary Amalgamation of Hromadas (Regarding the Voluntary Accession of Hromadas of Villages, Rural Settlements to Hromadas of Cities of Oblast Significance)” No 6466 may be considered already at the plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine next week.

This draft law should simplify the procedure of establishment of amalgamated hromadas around cities of oblast significance. In particular, it provides for a simplified procedure of hromadas’ accession to cities of oblast significance – without holding elections to the city council, but only electing deputies in the accessed hromadas. For this purpose, the draft law proposes to equate the hromadas of cities of oblast significance with the capable amalgamated hromadas.

It is worth reminding that the Parliament did not supported draft law No 6466 on 7 December, Local Self-Governance Day. Decentralisation.gov.ua published  commentaries of the people’s deputies of Ukraine Mykola Fedoruk and Oksana Prodan.

This document should now go through the second reading.

According to Yuriy Hanushchak, the adoption of the draft lawl will enable the process of voluntary amalgamation of hromadas to be intensified. However, the expert is not going to predict the future fate of the draft law. Pursuant to him, its adoption by the Parliament will depend, among other things, on the support from the Association of Ukrainian Cities.

“I do not know if the draft law is going to be supported by the Association of Ukrainian Cities. I hope that the situation that occurred on 7 December, when the document was voted, is a mere accident that can be easily retrieved. I can only add that if the Association of Cities still does not support the issue of hromadas’ amalgamation around the cities of oblast significance, this may challenge its support of decentralisation in general,” commented Yuriy Hanushchak.