The principles and objectives of the delineation of powers between state authorities and local governments, developed by the Analytical Centre of the Association of Ukrainian Cities in accordance with the Concept of Recovery of Local Self-Government in Ukraine, were submitted to the Ministry for Development of  Communities and Territories of Ukraine together with comments on the draft Law of Ukraine "On the Principles of the Delineation and Distribution of Powers between Levels of Public Governance" developed by the Ministry.

The Association of Ukrainian Cities notes that the draft law proposed by the Ministry destroys the system defined by Chapter 2 of the Law of Ukraine "On Local Self-Government in Ukraine" without forming another one in its place, which would ensure the exercise of powers by local governments and the delineation of powers between state authorities and local governments in compliance with Part Two of Article 19 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

In its appeal to the Ministry, the Association of Ukrainian Cities proposed that the draft law on the delineation of powers, which is being developed to implement the Ukraine Facility indicator, take into account the following 12 comments:

- to secure the priority of own powers in case of their duplication by other authorities;

- to define a list of specific areas of exclusive competence of the state and important features of delegated powers of local self-government;

- to determine the possibilities of using various sources of revenue when exercising own powers and the direct obligation of the state to finance delegated powers;

- to provide for special procedures for taking into account the interests of local self-government when considering relevant draft laws, in particular regarding the financial support of powers;

- to determine the responsibility of the state in the event of violation by state authorities of the norms of the law on local self-government;

- to clearly set out the tasks of the public authorities to avoid “powers for the sake of powers”;

- to enshrine the rights of municipalities as separate entities exercising powers, to avoid ignoring the role of residents in exercising a wide range of their rights in local self-government;

- to provide for the delineation of powers between representative and executive bodies of local self-government for their effective exercise;

- to classify the powers of local governments as regulatory, legislative and executive to ensure the proper distribution of the relevant competences of each body;

- to define general institutional and organizational powers - planning, organizational, personnel, resource, economic, control and supervisory;

- to specify the content and guarantees of the implementation of their own powers, including functional and all institutional and organizational powers;

- to establish the priority of the provisions of the Law on Local Self-Government over the provisions of sectoral legislation.

The Association of Ukrainian Cities considers it necessary to systematically implement the decentralization reform:

The Concept should define the principles according to which draft regulatory legal acts are developed, including those regarding the delineation of powers between state authorities and local governments.

To read the Ukrainian version of the article, please click here.