Council of Europe
Strengthening Good Democratic
Governance and Resilience in Ukraine

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Council of Europe Strengthening Good Democratic
Governance and Resilience in Ukraine

News

Conference on Decentralisation of Power took place

25 April 2014

On 24 April 2014 in Kyiv the Conference on Decentralisation of Power in Ukraine was held. The event was organised by the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Municipal Economy of Ukraine and the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation to Ukraine.
More than 100 participants took part in the event: representatives of the diplomatic corps, members of the Ukrainian Parliament, representatives of executive authorities, local government and its associations, NGOs and experts.
“Decentralisation of power is not a Governmental caprice but an urgent necessity!” – this was a key thesis by Mr Volodymyr GROYSMAN, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Municipal Economy of Ukraine. This idea was widely supported by other participants of the conference including Ms Claudia LUCIANI, Director of the HYPERLINK “https://cs.coe.int/_layouts/orgchart/orgchart.aspx?lcid=1033&key=202&NameSimple=luciani&open=false” Directorate of Democratic Governance, Directorate General of Democracy – II, Council of Europe Secretariat General. She confirmed the readiness of the Council of Europe to continue support to Ukraine in strengthening democracy at both local and central level. Ms Luciani stated that the decentralisation reform is very delicate in nature and Ukraine, as a Council of Europe member state, can count on the Organisation’s support.

During the conference the participants exchanged their opinions about the challenges Ukraine faces and its possible solutions. Mr Pawel SWIANIEWICZ, Council of Europe expert, Professor of Warsaw University, Advisor to the President of the Republic of Poland, in general positively assessed moves of the Ukrainian Government aimed at decentralisation of power, in particular the adoption of the Concept of the Reform of local self-government and territorial organisation of power on 1 April 2014, but he noted that the Concept is very general, therefore much will depend on details to be developed in the next stage. For example, detailed clarifications are required for issues of financial reform, allocation of funds among tiers, transfer of personnel from current state administration in oblasts and rayons. The expert also stressed on urgency of solving the issue of territorial fragmentation and outlined the ways to deal with it.

Mr Vadym PROSHKO, Council of Europe expert, described the implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in Ukraine. He reminded of the key Charter provisions as well as the recommendations of the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities on local and regional democracy in Ukraine. The expert also stressed on the issue of the authenticity of the official Charter translation and Article 19 of the Law of Ukraine “On international treaties of Ukraine”, according to which ”…where the international treaty of Ukraine, which came into force according to the established procedure, stipulates the other rules than those provided by the respective legal act of Ukraine, the rules of the international treaty shall be applied”.
The experts of Razunkov Centre informed about the results of research held by its sociologic service: if in Ukraine the referendum on its territorial structure was held now, the 69,3% of respondents would choose the option of unitary state with decentralised power. Following the conference the Centre experts will prepare a final document with policy recommendations to be provided to the Temporary Special Parliamentary Commission on Drafting the Law on Constitutional Amendments and the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Municipal Economy of Ukraine.