On 10 April, representatives from amalgamated hromadas gathered at the Chernivtsi Local Government Development Centre to discuss the situation related to the management of the cultural sector.

At the beginning of the discussion, Viktoriya Cheban, legal adviser of the Chernivtsi LGDC, spoke about the legal details of the process of managing the cultural facilities in AHs: "The founders of cultural centres in villages were mostly village councils. Over time, there were situations, when the managerial functions of these institutions were transferred to the rayon council. And it's just about management, not about ownership transfer. There is a different situation with AHs, formed on the basis of former rayon centres. In this case the rayon council may be the founder, and the management may be carried out by the appropriate structure of the RSA. Accordingly, the rayon council can transfer ownership rights to the cultural centre of AH, but since the institution is a rayon one, then such a transfer requires the consent of all village councils in the rayon. Such a transfer can be approved by the Ministry of Culture in case of preservation of the status of a "rayon" cultural centre, as happened in the case of the Novoselytsia institution. With regard to libraries, the situation here is somewhat different, since in the majority of villages such institutions did not have the status of a separate legal entity, but functioned as branches of the rayon library. The Ministry of Culture recommends that AHs create public libraries," summed up Viktoriya Cheban.

The first results of the development of the cultural domain and the existing potential of the hromadas of the Chernivtsi Oblast were demonstrated during the socio-cultural event "The village in our Ukraine is like Pysanka...".

"This year, the AHs have taken part in such an event for the first time, and I am pleased to award the Sokyryanska urban AH and Mahalska rural AH as the leaders in the development of culture in 2018,” said Tetyana Tatarchuk, director of the Chernivtsi LGDC, established with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme and MinRegion.

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