There is a problem of fragmentation of municipalities in Ukraine, for example, out of 10278 rural communities, 9500 have less than 3000 people and  4600 communities have less than 1000 people. This system does not allow to create sustainable communities, that will possess sufficient material and financial recourses, territory and social infrastructure to provide good services for population.
 

Today the trend towards amalgamation of the communities is observed in many European countries such as Latvia, Iceland and France. Other European countries have implemented the local self-governance reform through amalgamation of communities long ago (like Poland and others). Ukraine has also recognized the need for administrative and territorial reform, and as one of the first steps of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Municipal Economy of Ukraine, on behalf of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has elaborated the Draft Law  "On Amalgamation of Territorial Communities» (№9590). The Draft Law regulates the procedure of amalgamation of territorial communities of villages, settlements and cities and state support to amalgamated  communities. The purpose of the Law is to enable the amalgamation of communities through their voluntary association and improve the quality of life of local residents. In addition, the Law is expected to   make public expenditures more effective and promote the reform of local self-governance and administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine.

 

The Draft Law defines the conditions of amalgamation of communities, the procedure for initiating the process, establishing an amalgamated community, regulates the issue of succession, management of municipal property, budgeting and forms of state support, including financial.

 

According to the Draft Law, the mayor of the village, settlement or city can initiate the amalgamation process. The mayor applies to the mayors of the neighboring communities with a proposal to initiate the amalgamation process in accordance with the perspective plan of development the communities in the region approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

 

The Draft also includes a provision under which the decision on amalgamation of the communities should be adopted based on results of local referenda or on the city  council decisions taken after  discussions at the general meetings (conferences) of local residents. After this, the agreement on amalgamation of the communities should be signed by the village, settlement or city mayor and approved by the local councils.

 

The round table was held under support of the UNDP Project "Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme", Council of Europe Programme "Strengthening  the Capacity of Local Authorities in Ukraine", the Swiss-Ukrainian project "Support to Decentralization in Ukraine" and the Parliamentary Development Project II.

 

Oksana Remiga, UNDP Senior Programme Manager participated in the round table. Sergiy Kolotov, Deputy Mayor of Novograd-Volynskiy partner municipality noted that smaller municipalities had been waiting for adoption of such Law, because even subsidized communities can achieve better results when they  unite the efforts and resources owing to  cooperation and specialization. Mr. Kolotov highlighted the need for state support and stimulation of local communities amalgamation process.

 

The decision on the Draft Law will be adopted at the Committee meeting on March 14, 2012.