On 1 December 2020 Mr. Daniel POPESCU, the Head of Department of Democracy and Governance of the Council of Europe presented the legal expertise of the Draft Law on Local State Administrations in Ukraine to the members of the Parliament during the meeting of the Subcommittee on Administrative and Territorial Structure and the Subcommittee on State Power, State and Local Government Service, State Symbols and Awards of the Parliamentary Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development.
The opinion is focused on compliance of the draft Law #4298 with the European Charter on Local Self-Government, especially in the field of administrative supervision of local self-governments, as well as with the Committee of Ministers’ Recommendations on this issue (Rec(1998)12 on supervision of local authorities’ action and Rec(2019)3 on the supervision of local authorities activities) and the practice of other Council of Europe member States.
Many of the provisions of the reviewed draft go in a good direction; some raise however concerns in respect of the impact on local government and the current reform of decentralisation; some other seem to not be in line with the Charter.
The Council of Europe Opinion on the draft law “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Local State Administrations” and other Legislative Acts of Ukraine on Reforming Territorial Organisation of Executive Power in Ukraine”, CEGG/LEX(2020)5, can be found here.
The opinion was prepared in response to the request formulated by the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development of Ukraine and provided in the framework of the Council of Europe Programme “Enhancing decentralisation and public administration reform in Ukraine”.
As a follow up to the meeting it was agreed that the Council of Europe will contribute to the specialised thematic meetings to be organised by the Parliamentary Committee mentioned above in order to finalise the draft law and align its provisions with the European standards.
