The Committee on the Implementation of Ukraine's International Legal Obligations in the Field of European Integration and EU Law recommends that the Parliament adopt in the second reading and as a whole the draft law on amendments to certain laws of Ukraine on improving the participation of local self-government in inter-territorial and cross-border cooperation (Reg. No. 9450).
The version of the draft law submitted to the Parliament is a draft comprehensive regulatory act that brings the norms of Ukrainian legislation in line with the norms of European law and comprehensively and systematically regulates all aspects of international cooperation between the regions and territories of Ukraine, regardless of their location.
The Draft Law proposes to:
- change the title of the draft law to "On International Territorial Cooperation of Ukraine", which should demonstrate the global establishment of international territorial cooperation between the regions and territories of Ukraine and relevant entities of other countries;
- define the types of international territorial cooperation with the appropriate reflection of the basic terminology in the law:
- inter-territorial cooperation;
- cross-border cooperation;
- transnational cooperation;
- provide, in accordance with the EU Regulations and the Madrid Convention and its additional protocols ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, clarifications on the participation of subjects and participants of such relations in the work of international territorial cooperation bodies, namely
- euroregional cooperation association;
- European association of territorial cooperation;
- Euroregion;
- other bodies;
- update approaches to state support for subjects and participants of international territorial cooperation;
- improve the procedure for approving draft agreements on international territorial cooperation and the powers of the central executive body responsible in this area;
- strengthen the role of the Interagency Coordination Commission on Regional Development;
- to set out directly in the basic law of the local self-government system the main powers of village, town, city, district, and regional councils in the field of inter-territorial cooperation;
- to refer the implementation of the state regional policy and the development of international territorial cooperation, the possibility of concluding cooperation agreements with foreign partners to the jurisdiction of local state administrations;
- to ensure the possibility of participation in international territorial cooperation of territorial communities on whose territories military administrations of settlements have been established.
The draft law was considered at a meeting of the Committee on January 18, 2024.