Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government recommends Ukrainian Parliament adopt draft law "On population self-organization bodies" as a basis

Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Population Self-Organization Bodies, Local Election and Other Forms of Direct Democracy Olena Boiko noted that elaboration of the draft law No. 2466 is required as some provisions of the effective Law of Ukraine "On population self-organization bodies" contradict the Constitution of Ukraine, terms of the Law of Ukraine "On local self-government in Ukraine" and do not properly regulate legal status of population self-organization bodies. Taking in account the aforementioned, the draft law aims to improve current situation in the field of regulation of the legal status of population self-organization bodies as well as to create conditions for direct participation of territorial communities' members in settlement of local problems through specification and expansion of the conceptual framework used in the Law, simplification of the procedure of creation and shortening of the period for legalization of a population self-organization body, expansion of its authorities, etc.

The Boiko said that the Committee had obtained conclusions from:

- the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy and Justice, which considers that the draft law is in line with the provisions of the Basic Law of Ukraine;

- the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Combating Corruption, which states that the draft law corresponds to requirements of the anticorruption law;

- the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Budget Affairs, which considers that the draft law affects the indicators of the budget and recommended bringing Article 17 of the draft law in line with the requirements of the Budget Code of Ukraine in terms of formation and fulfillment of local budgets of Ukraine;

- the Main Department for Research and Evaluation of the Verkhovna Rada Secretariat, which points to inexpediency of revision of the rules on functioning of population self-organization bodies in conditions of the declared course to reformation of local self-government and considers that before the adoption of the legislative initiatives, respective local self-government amendments have to be introduced to the Constitution of Ukraine. Besides, Boiko said that the Main Department considers doubtful the offered order of establishment of population self-organization bodies from the point of view of correspondence of the order to Section 6 of Article 140 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which enshrines licensing nature instead of informative nature of the establishment of population self-organization bodies.

Boiko told the Committee members that the Committee had address for their comments on the draft law the Legislation Institute of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, Institute of State Service and Local Self-Government of the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, Institute of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Affairs of the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Municipal Administration Academy, Research Institute of State Building and Local Self-Government, All-Ukrainian Association of Village and Small Town Councils, Population Self-Organization Support Association All-Ukrainian Non-Government Organization, etc.

The Chairperson of the Subcommittee also noted that in February 2015, the Committee sent a letter to heads of regional councils and chairpersons of regional state administrations offering to provide all details on the population self-organization bodies established within authorities of the region in 2001-2014.

Boiko said that respective analysis of the received information allowed to make the following conclusions:

- over the said period, a total of 6,193 population self-organization bodies were established in Ukraine, of them 5,584 bodies were operating;

- the total number of residents on the territory of authorities of population self-organization bodies was 4,655,150;

- the largest number of population self-organization bodies — 2,680 — was established in Dnipropetrovsk region;

- the division of population self-organization bodies by types was the following: population self-organization bodies of housing estates - 3.7%; population self-organization bodies of quarters – 24%, population self-organization bodies of streets – 18%, population self-organization bodies of houses – 40.7%, others (affiliation with population self-organization bodies in doubt) – 12%;

- 43% of all population self-organization bodies were established through registration, the rest — through foundation notification;

- 53% of population self-organization bodies received delegated authorities, however, the indicator of delegated authorities has not reached 100% of population self-organization bodies in any region;