Decentralisation is irreversible for the country; it remains a priority in the Government's activities next year, because a person is a centre of its attention, namely the proper ensuring of person’s rights, freedoms, interests, told the journalists Vyacheslav Nehoda, First Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services, during the Dialogue Day with the Authorities in Ternopil.

“The Prime Minister clearly stated that decentralisation continues to be among the priorities in the Government's activities. Since the beginning of the reform, a lot has been done: look at the results of the financial decentralisation, how life in the hromadas changes, especially in those that have become active reform participants and have taken responsibility for improving their territory... The “face” of hromadas and the philosophy of activity are changing in all sectors. The hromada is a country in miniature. Therefore, we must ensure that each hromada succeeds in using the decentralisation tools and becomes successful. This is a very responsible task. In fact, we are building a new Ukrainian state,” commented Vyacheslav Nehoda.

He added that much work has been done to ensure that local elections in the country are held in 2020 on a new territorial basis. To do this, it is necessary to adopt a number of important laws, the first among which is the law on the principles of administrative and territorial structure.

“It is important that decentralisation is on the daily agenda of both the Government and local self-government. It is evident from the results. But the ultimate goal is still far away, so we have to accelerate. There are hopes that in the nearest future the CEC will appoint elections in newly formed amalgamated hromadas, and the Parliament will adopt the necessary laws,” added the First Deputy Minister.

It should be mentioned that today Hugues Mingarelli, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, has called the Ukrainian experience in decentralisation issues “a very interesting example for other countries”.

The Dialogue Day with the Authorities is a traditional annual event that is a platform for discussion of issues and elaboration of a common stance of the state authorities and the Association of Ukrainian Cities on the development of local self-government, improvement of the legislative framework, solving specific problems of ensuring the of hromadas’ functioning. The event is being carried out within the framework of the project “Development of a course for strengthening local self-government in Ukraine" (PULSE), implemented by the Association of Ukrainian Cities, supported by USAID.