On 17 January, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on State Building, Regional Policy and Local Self-Government decided to form a working group on the ways of reforming Ukraine’s legislation in the field of local democracy.

The Committee considered the draft laws of Ukraine on public hearings (No 2295a), local initiatives (No 2296a), amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Local Self-Government in Ukraine” (regarding the Charter of the hromada and forms of direct involvement of residents in the exercise of power) (No 3634), on amendments to some laws of Ukraine concerning the charters of hromadas (No 7297) and amendments to some laws of Ukraine regarding the charters of hromadas (No 7297-1).

The purpose of these draft laws is to improve the legal regulation of the mechanisms of local democracy and charter rulemaking of hromadas.

Taking into account the affinity of the legal regulation subjects of the mentioned legislative initiatives, considering viewpoints of the Ukrainian MPs – members of the Committee, representatives of central executive authorities, all-Ukrainian associations of local self-government bodies, and non-governmental organisations, the Committee concluded on relevance of establishment of a Working Group of the Committee on the identification of the ways of reforming Ukrainian legislation in the local democracy domain.

The working group, that will include MPs, Government members, representatives of associations of local self-governments, non-governmental organisations and experts, should take into account all legislative initiatives concerning the forms of direct democracy and charters of hromadas, and propose a concept for the creation of a single draft law.

Proposals for inclusion in the mentioned working group are accepted till 29 January 2018 (Iryna Liashko, chief consultant, responsible person of the Committee’s secretariat – (tel.: 255-25-33, e-mail:liashko-i@rada.gov.ua).