On 19 November 2024, the Congress of the Council of Europe organised in Bucha, Ukraine, a round table to launch broad consultations with Ukrainian partners on the future reform of the division of competences between the country’s central authorities and the three tiers of local and regional self-government.
“Decentralisation transferred numerous responsibilities to local authorities, yet issues of overlapping competencies remain, affecting coordination between state and subnational levels. Moreover, the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine has added complexity, with military administrations temporarily assuming some local powers. Therefore, there is a strong need to redefine and refine the current system to ensure that all government tiers function effectively, with no gaps or duplication,” underlined Congress Director Claudia Luciani addressing the round table.
“We have begun preparing legislation on the division of competences between the state and local authorities. It is crucial for establishing an adequate public administration system, moreover this is a requirement of the EU with a fixed deadline. This means that the draft law should be made public in the spring of next year already», stressed Vitaliy Bezgin, Chair of the Specialised Subcommittee on Local Self-Government of the Ukrainian Parliament.
The Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance (CEMG) at the Congress will provide its expertise to Ukrainian authorities to accomplish the reform, scheduled to be completed by March 2026. This work will be carried out with engagement of all key stakeholders and civil society, including national associations of local authorities.
More pictures from the Round Table could be found here.
The Round Table was supported by the Council of Europe within the Programme “Strengthening Good Democratic Governance and Resilience in Ukraine”, which is implemented by the CEMG at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” 2023-2026.
