An appeal to the supreme leadership of the state was approved by the Association of Amalgamated Hromadas at its General Meeting, held on 3 December. The meeting was attended by authorised representatives of 90 out of 115 hromadas-members of the Association from all regions of Ukraine.

The Association appealed to President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman with a request and call to remove legislative barriers on the way of the reform of local self-government and territorial organisation of power.

“This reform and large-scale processes of power decentralisation, initiated and started by you, are pivotal for the development of our state. Amalgamated hromadas stay firmly on the path of reform and are ready to move forward to our joint success, to a new Ukraine – the state of capable hromadas, to a truly new quality of life for people in Ukrainian towns and villages,” the appeal reads.

The Association in particular calls for the adoption of draft law 7118 and authorising amalgamated hromadas to dispose of land resources within their territory. “It will open up substantial additional opportunities for their development, and will become the reforming impetus for all the others,” note the members of the Association persuasively.

At the same time, the representatives of amalgamated hromadas consider it necessary to give local governments the opportunity to plan the entire hromada space comprehensively, thus, the adoption of draft law No 6403 is required.

The Association also called for a long-overdue reform of the territorial organisation of power at the rayon level, where the reform implementation slowdown is now the most frequent.

Full text of the appeal is available HERE