President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the Decree on the formation of Communities and Territories’ Development Council dated 10 December 2019.

The document states that the Communities and Territories’ Development Council is an advisory and consulting body under the President of Ukraine.

The Council is formed to “establish effective interaction of state bodies with local self-government bodies in issues of development of state regional policy priorities and mechanisms of sustainable development of territorial hromadas, taking into account the standards of the European Charter of Local Self-Government and new approaches in the sphere of regional development, solving economic problems of social and administrative issues of territorial units,” the decree reads.

In particular, the Council will study the socio-political and socio-economic processes in the regions, formulate the priorities of the state regional policy, and establish interaction of state bodies with local self-government bodies.

The Council will be responsible for implementing the local self-government reform, monitoring implementation of presidential acts on regional policy, analysing legislation on regional development, local self-government and territorial organisation of power, as well as preparing proposals for its improvement.

The Council includes the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Prime Minister, Head of the Presidential Office, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Deputy Heads of the Presidential Office responsible for economic policy, internal and humanitarian affairs, Representative of the President in the Verkhovna Rada, Representative of the President in the Cabinet of Ministers, Head of the State Administration of Affairs, Director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, Minister of Communities and Territories’ Development, Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture, Minister of Infrastructure, Minister of Finance, heads of oblast, Kyiv City State administrations, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, heads of oblast councils, heads of cities – oblast centres, heads of all-Ukrainian associations of local self-government bodies.