The experts enumerated five draft laws that the Parliament needs to adopt as soon as possible to accelerate the reform of local self-government and decentralisation in Ukraine:

1. On the principles of the administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine No 8051. It defines the basic principles on which the administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine should be based, as well as the procedure for the formation, liquidation, establishment and change of boundaries of administrative-territorial units. It does not amend the current administrative-territorial structure of the country.

      2.    On the voluntary accession of hromadas of villages and settlements to hromadas of cities of oblast significance  No 6466. It unlocks the process of forming capable hromadas around cities of oblast significance and introduces the mechanism of voluntary accession of hromadas to these cities.

3. On improvement of the procedure of voluntary amalgamation of hromadas No 7467. It simplifies the procedure for approving perspective plans for the formation of the territories of hromadas of oblasts and changes to them.

4. On service in local self-government bodies No 2489. It establishes new legal and organisational principles of service in local self-government bodies as professional and politically impartial activities for the benefit of the state and hromadas.

5. On amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On regulation of urban development activities" No 6403. It provides amalgamated hromadas with the only documentation on spatial planning – the plan of the AH. It also extends the powers of AHs to regulate the development of territories, and creates a mechanism for the consideration of public interests in the development and approval of urban planning documentation.

It should be noted that in general, experts identify 17 priority draft laws necessary for further decentralisation. The list of these draft laws is available HERE