Opening the meeting, Chair of the Committee Davyd Zhvania claimed that the issue on legislative regulation of cooperation of local communities is a part of a larger task on a comprehensive reform of a system of exercise of power in Ukraine.
D. Zhvania stressed that practically all political forces, state authorities and their officials, local self-government authorities and their associations, national and internationals NGOs, leading scientists, experts, and the society support the vector of reforming public (state and self-) government based on the principles of decentralization, subsidiarity, and widespread use of the mechanisms of democracy.
He also stressed that “the main task is to ensure the balance of actions. On the one hand, decisive and quick actions are necessary, since for over ten years we have not progressed further than debates and discussions; on the other hand, these should be thought out and estimated steps as under conditions of external aggression we must clearly predict the consequences in order not to allow any threats to unity and territorial integrity of the country”.
According to D.Zhvania, self-governing component of people’s government “shall receive all levers of influence on ensuring high quality of people’s lives and communities shall finally become real landlords on their territories in keeping with the best European traditions”.
People’s deputy also said that successful activity of self-government authorities will require, firstly, a reliable legislative basis which will settle the problems of local referendums, self-organization of the population, assemblies of citizens according to their place of residence, local initiatives, and peaceful assemblies.
He emphasized that changes should also be made in the system of local executive authorities by focusing their functions exclusively on the issues of control and monitoring, and Oblast and regional councils should eventually receive their own executive authorities ensuring implementation of governmental powers at respective territorial levels.
In the words of the Committee’s Chair, “the Concept of Local Self-Government Reform and Territorial Power Organization in Ukraine, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dd. April 1, 2014 No. 333-р, can become a reference point and an action plan in this direction”.
Characterizing the bill on cooperation of local communities (Reg. No. 4756), Vice Prime-Minister, Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine Volodymyr Hroisman claimed that according to the bill, local communities will have a chance to unite and settle local problems jointly by using organizational and administrative resources. In his words, the bill also stipulates a possibility of a joint funding of enterprises and organizations. V. Hroisman informed about stimulating cooperation between communities, particularly, by providing local budgets with subventions for implementation of tasks in priority spheres of state policy. “This way the state will be able to stimulate strengthening the ability of communities to ensure implementation of a wider range of powers, and thus, promote their preparation to implementing reforms of local self-government in full”, he said.
Counselor of the Acting President of Ukraine, Chair of Presidential Administration Main Office for Constitutional and Legal Modernization Affairs Maryna Stavniichuk stressed that “it is important that this bill stipulates numerous forms of cooperation of local communities that in future will generate a positive effect”.
First Deputy Chair of the State Fund for Local Self-Government of Ukraine Olena Tertyshna stated that local self-government authorities positively estimate possibilities of uniting efforts of local communities in settling common problems of social and economic development. “The evidence of this are corporate projects that have been submitted for the last several years to the All-Ukrainian competition of projects and programmes of local self-government development of local self-government development, the partners of implementing this project are local self-government authorities and business-structures, entrepreneurs, etc”, she said.
People’s deputies, representatives of state authorities, local self-government and their leading associations, NGOs, scientist, international and national experts also participated in the round table.
Summing up, the participants claimed that such events and an open discussion of the bills are important and topical since establishing on the legislative level a mechanism of cooperation of local communities is one of the main tasks of reforming local self-government and local organization of power in Ukraine, and an important component in forming financial capacity of local communities to independently create more efficient provision of services to local population by cooperation of their own resources.