Today, during a meeting of the “Good Governance” Commission of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities — attended by representatives from over 160 municipalities — experts from the RPR Coalition presented a draft law amending the Law “On Associations of Local Self-Government Bodies.”

Why are these changes needed?
Before the administrative and territorial reform, local government associations (LGAs) were formed based on the different statuses of municipalities — regional cities, district-level cities, towns, and villages. Following local self-government reform, all municipalities — except for the city of Kyiv — now enjoy equal rights, powers, and sources of revenue. However, in practice, LGAs at the basic level often have divergent interests that are difficult to reconcile under the current framework.

What does the draft law propose?

• Encouraging a diversity of perspectives: shifting from the “speak with one voice” principle to “listening to different voices” by enabling various approaches to solving local governance issues
• Expanding the scope of matters requiring coordination between executive authorities and LGAs
• Democratizing the operations of LGAs
  

We’ll be presenting the full draft law very soon. In the meantime, Yurii Mykytiuk — Head of Regional Programs and Deputy Head of Advocacy and International Relations at the RPR Coalition — explains: “We can debate the details, methods, and nature of the changes to the Law on LGAs. But what all experts and government representatives agree on is this: the current legislation on local government associations is morally outdated. That’s why, for the past two years, we’ve been working with experts and LGA representatives to develop these amendments. This law isn’t for us — it’s primarily for local government officials, because it also strengthens the broader local self-government reform.”

Follow the RPR Coalition’s pages to be the first to hear about all key reforms happening in Ukraine.