Lawsuits appealing against voluntary amalgamation or accession of hromadas will be classified into categories of urgent administrative cases to be considered under abridged procedure, within a month term. In this way, we will stop the practice of deliberate litigation of hromadas’ amalgamation process courts, - commented Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, on the governmentally approved draft law regarding hromadas’ rights protection in the process of voluntary amalgamation and accession.

The draft law amends the Law “On Voluntary Amalgamation of Hromadas” and the Code of Administrative Justice of Ukraine.

“Over the years of the reform, we have repeatedly made sure that decentralisation opponents, hiding behind the interests of hromada residents, try to stop the reform that does not appeal to those who lose political or financial influence on the territory, where capable AHs are formed. Court decisions on hromadas’ amalgamation were delayed for months and even years – this impeded the appointment and holding of the first elections in AHs. Thus, after the Parliament adopts the draft law, prepared by MinRegion, it will not be possible to delay the process of appointing, preparing and conducting elections in hromadas. This will allow to execute the constitutional rights of Ukrainians and their aspirations for the development of their hromadas,” said Hennadii Zubko.

In particular, the draft law proposes:

• to define a clear procedural mechanism for appealing decisions of the village, settlement and city councils on the approval of the draft decision, as well as final decisions of local councils on the voluntary amalgamation of hromadas or voluntary accession to the AH;
• to classify cases on appeals against relevant decisions as urgent administrative cases, namely an administrative case on a claim for appealing against such decisions is decided by the court within five days after the opening of proceedings; an appeal is considered within two days after the expiration of the time limit for appeals;
• to clearly identify the subjects entitled to appeal, namely, citizens of Ukraine, whose place of residence is registered on the territory of the administrative-territorial unit that is part of the respective territorial hromada, or the village, settlement, city council, which initiated or gave consent to voluntary amalgamation (accession) of territorial hromadas;
• decision on voluntary amalgamation / accession may be appealed by the abovementioned entities within ten days since the date of adoption.