There is one body in focus of our committee scan today:
Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government
April 23. In Vinnytsia, there was held by the committee a roundtable on pressing issues in refining the basic law on a home rule (local self-government) system and in lobbying its interests at public authorities.
This problematics is an integral part of the public power decentralization reform, which is being conducted in the framework of the law of Ukraine on local self-government adopted in 1997.
The bulk of the committee’s work over the years passed has testified an acute public demand for further improvement of the law, with a broader undertaking on the comprehensive and system-wide reform.
An expert from the Council of Europe Programme “Decentralisation and local government reform in Ukraine” stressed the need to continue the local self-government reforms at all levels and the importance of further efforts to ensure the legislative provision of these reforms. She drew attention of those in attendance to the adoption of the redrafted law of Ukraine "On service in local self-government bodies", and also reminded of the well-known list of the 17 top-priority bills aimed at resolving the problem yet in being. The above 17 priorities were named in the Address of the German Special envoy on reforms in Ukraine Georg Milbradt and in the Joint statement of the bilateral donor agencies and multilateral organizations supporting the decentralization and local self-government reform in Ukraine.
While debating on the basic law, USAID Project Director of the "Policy for Ukraine Local Self Governance (PULSE)" programme Ihor Parasiuk, Deputy Head of the Committee’s secretariat Oleh Danyliuk, and the Director of the Association of the Ukrainian Cities Central Office Volodymyr Miahkokhod reported at length on the amendments to the law at issue.
Triggering off the legal lobbying deliberations, Julia Sedyk, Project Coordinatior, “Local Self Government and the Rule of Law in Ukraine” project, Swedish governmental agency Folke Bernadotte Academy presented her experience in identifying, systematizing and reporting on problematic issues in the field of local self-government to the state authorities.
In turn, the committee secretariat chief counselor Haik Stepanian, spoke about the committee’s expertise in working with the organizations representing the common interests of local self-government in the implementation of the legislative and supervisory functions of the committee.
The Director of the All-Ukrainian Administrative Services Centres Association Andrii Dergun remarked that today, when there are no formal rules for lobbying interests at all levels of exercising authorities under decentralization, it is the professional associations that are capable of providing live interaction between all the stakeholders in the sphere of service activities.
A project expert from the "Partisipative Democracy and Grounded Solutions at the Local Level in Ukraine" programme Natalia Beskupska colligated and presented at the sitting the Vinnytsia-proven Norwegian experience in detecting sore points in the local self-government and state authorities activities, and the effectiveness of the given tools for solving the issues through virtue force-up working groups.
The round table was attended by a range of regional top executives, representatives of local government bodies of the Vinnytsia region and their men of law, representatives of international and domestic non-governmental organizations, experts.
The event was promoted by:
Council of Europe Programme “De-centralization and local government reform in Ukraine”,
USAID "Policy for Ukraine Local Self Governance (PULSE)" project,
“Local Self Government and the Rule of Law in Ukraine” project, Swedish governmental agency Folke Bernadotte Academy,
"Partisipative Democracy and Grounded Solutions at the Local Level in Ukraine" programme.