On September 4, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine did not support draft law №13150 “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Ensuring Legality in the Activities of Local Self-Government Bodies and Officials.” Only 206 MPs voted in favor of its adoption, out of the 226 required.

According to experts from the Centre of Policy and Legal Reforms, the vote’s failure was the result of numerous manipulations surrounding legislative initiatives aimed at reforming local state administrations and their activities. One of the tasks of the Concept of Reforming Local Self-Government and Territorial Organisation of Power in Ukraine, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2014, was to bring local state administrations closer to prefectural-type bodies. To this end, draft law №4298 was developed in 2020 and passed its first reading in 2021.

However, further work on it was accompanied by attempts to change the initial logic of the document. This is a “unique” case where the draft law had five revisions before the second reading. In all but the first two, provisions were added to the text that contradicted European practice and did not correspond to the tasks of local state administrations.

An important element of draft law №4298 was the introduction of administrative oversight of the legality of local government acts. This was intended to safeguard against the decentralisation of corruption, powers, and finances. This task was also included in the Ukraine Facility program, which obliged Ukraine to create an effective oversight mechanism by March 2025.

Instead, the authorities halted consideration of draft law №4298 and came up with draft law №13150, which attempted to formally meet the EU’s requirements, as it proposed only conditional oversight at the level of regional administrations, which did not correspond to the declared goals of the reform and did not ensure transparency or effective management.

The draft law’s rejection signaled that, to fulfill Ukraine’s obligations to the EU, substantive changes in the sphere of local self-government and territorial organization of power that would meet European standards and Ukraine’s obligations are necessary.