Participants of the meeting discussed the state and ways of legislative and financial provision for decentralization of power.

Representatives of local self-government of all levels, heads of specializing parliamentary committees, members of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, representatives of Administration of the President of Ukraine, members of Ukrainian Delegation of Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, as well as experts on decentralization and territorial organization of government were in attendance at the meeting.  

Addressing participants of the meeting, Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman stressed the necessity of the soonest possible reforming of the system of local self-government and holding decentralization of power. “Lots of people say that the war is not a good time for holding reforms, and decentralization of power will weaken our country. I strongly disagree with that since the quality system of governance, local initiative at the level of communities, regions and oblasts, as well as initiatives that will benefit for the development of our country today should be implemented. In view of this, the system should be changed,” he claimed.

Volodymyr Groysman said also that this meeting aims at elaboration of “action plan of joint work that should lead us to clear and understandable reforms in the sphere of local self-government.” According to him, “the present-day system of local self-government should be changed promptly, professionally and qualitatively.”

Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada claimed that another local election, scheduled for October this year, should be held on a new basis, and in view of this we should “work intensively, however prudently and clearly.”

Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Hennadii Zubko reported on the state of legislative provision for decentralization of power. He noted that “the entire reform of power decentralization pertains practically to one thing – regional development.” “That is why the bill on the fundamentals of regional development is an important one. We want the communities themselves to have the opportunity to independently attract funds, independently administer taxes and independently develop on the basis of the laws that are being adopted. Further on, everything will depend on the community - what authority they will elect to govern this process. Our task is to regulate and assist,” stressed H.Zubko.  

Vice Prime Minister noted that the Ministry of Regional Development has established a working group that is getting down to work. He addressed representatives of local self-government bodies asking them to provide legislative initiatives.

Ihor Umanskyi, First Deputy Finance Minister, reported on the financial provision for the decentralization of power.

Member of the Budgetary Committee, the people’s deputy Anatolii Matviienko noted in his speech that: “if we want to respond to the question why we are so poor, we should say that the country is too much centralized. If we talk about the first tasks we are facing after corruption and war, we should say that decentralization is the main task able to significantly rectify the situation.”

He said that “budgetary decentralization was Committee’s primary task when preparing a new version of amendments to the Budget Code and formation of 2015 State Budget that was adopted at the end of the previous year.”  

Anatolii Matviienko said also that the Committee on Budget deems that the Budget Code made serious steps towards decentralization. “The Committee upheld and will uphold amortization things, enshrined in the budget, that will provide an opportunity to react to the challenges that we failed to foresee,” he said.  

In his words, radical changes have already showed a lot of problems in self-government of villages, townships, small towns, particularly, in finding new sources of income for their budgets. "Real estate tax, local excise directly depend on the soonest implementation of adopted amendments to the Tax Code. The Verkhovna Rada has not yet received a bill on the list of administrative services which is also a basis for forming local budgets", stressed A.Matviienko.  

People's deputy also informed that the Committee on Budget received messages from local self-government authorities on the need to settle several methodological issues connected with transferring property and funds. "Executive authorities should react to such messages immediately. However, we do not see this happening", he said and added that "budget decentralization can not be an efficient and independent reform; it should be implemented together with other reforms. There must be sectoral reforms of education, healthcare, culture, and social provision. The next should be administrative and territorial reform".

A.Matviienko believes that it is better to consider not voluntary uniting but downsizing of regions. People's deputy said "If we voluntarily unite the communities, we will receive cacophony – only 10 or 20 percent will unite. We again will not understand how we organize the government. So, we need radical actions, particularly, on the basic level. We need to radically change the situation in the country".  

Participants of the meeting stressed that the Verkhovna Rada shall immediately consider draft laws on foundations of state regional policy and on voluntary uniting territorial communities, and to accelerate elaboration of a new version of the Law "On elections of deputies of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, local councils and village, town and city mayors".

Following the results of the enlarged meeting, All-Ukrainian associations of local self-government authorities are recommended:

by February 6, 2015, to prepare and submit to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine proposals on amendments to the Budget for 2015 in the part of financial insurance of local self-government;

to activate their work on elaborating conclusions to draft laws and other regulatory legal acts on issues concerning local self-government, regional development, improvement of budget and tax legislation;

to immediately submit proposals to the agenda of the second session and long-term plan of legislative work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the eighth convocation;

to submit to the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine proposals on renewing the composition of the Consultative Council on local self-government, its action plan and new forms of activity of this advisory body.

The Cabinet of Ministers together with members of the Consultative Council and All-Ukrainian associations of local self-government authorities are recommended to conduct explanatory work in territorial communities and local councils of all levels on appliance of amendments to legislation aimed at financial insurance of local self-government and government decentralization.

At the same time, it is necessary for state authorities to establish an efficient dialogue with local councils, associations of local self-government, and other civil society institutions.