Minregion and the Association of Communities Are Developing Solutions for Local Self-Government

Vitalii Bezghin, Minister for Communities, Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, attended the General Assembly of the All-Ukrainian Association of Amalgamated Territorial Communities.

As always, there were many topics, from preparations for the new school year and the reform of specialised upper secondary education to financing, powers and the capacity of local self-government.

Construction pricing. We expect an important, jointly developed decision to simplify the mechanism for communities to be adopted within a few weeks.

Status of employees in frontline territories. A corresponding draft law is being developed. The document will be sent for approval in the coming days.

Division of powers. The deadline for meeting European integration commitments is 31 March 2027. At the same time, the version of the draft law adopted by the Verkhovna Rada at first reading does not provide a full division of powers and, consequently, does not fulfil the specified indicators. We will therefore restart work in this area.

About 5.5% of local councils have lost their ability to exercise their powers because they have too few members. The Ministry therefore supports priority draft law No. 14405, which reduces the quorum requirement from two-thirds to 50% of the council’s actual membership. The document has already been included in the Verkhovna Rada’s preliminary agenda for next week.

The General Assembly also elected the head of the Association. We congratulate Oleksandr Korinnyi on his re-election.

Local government associations are important partners for Minregion. For seven years we worked side by side, although in a different role. We continue to speak directly, listen to one another and, most importantly, turn discussions into results.