By Oleksandr Vrublevskyi, DESPRO expert consultant of the project on starostas’ activity and cooperation of hromadas

The general meeting of citizens at the place of residence is a form of direct participation of hromada members in solving local issues. This is not just one of the requirements of the current version of the Law of Ukraine “On Local Self-Government in Ukraine” (part 1 of Article 8), but rather a powerful tool of local democracy, the results of the correct application of which neither the AH head, nor the council and its executive bodies cannot ignore. This article features the way the issue of holding a general meeting of citizens is regulated and the manner a starosta can contribute to the improvement of the regulation of this local democracy instrument.

It is worth to know! The provisions on the general meeting of citizens, approved by the decision of the relevant council, may be both a separate local legal act and an annex to hromada’s charter.

In this case during the general meeting of citizens, its organisers and participants should be guided not only by the hromada’s charter, but also by the Regulations on the General Meeting, approved by the decision of the relevant council.

It is worth remembering! The procedure for holding general meeting of citizens is also regulated by the Verkhovna Rada Resolution No. 3748-XII “On Approval of the Regulation on the General Meeting of Citizens at the Place of Residence in Ukraine” dated 17 November 1993.

The general meeting of citizens is a specific public space, where the participants under the established procedure jointly discuss and directly solve issues of local importance concerning general interests of the AH or issues of importance to the residents of the starosta district or a settlement that is part of it. 

P.S. Additional questions that follow from this article can be put to the author on the Forum of Starotas http://forum.decentralization.ua

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