“According to the last year results, most of the state financial resource, i.e. 51% of the total budget, is at the disposal of local self-government bodies," said Serhiy Sharshov, General Director of the Directorate for the Development of Local Self-Government, Territorial Organisation of Power and Administrative-Territorial Structure of MinRegion. “There are a lot of examples showing a general success. I will quote only one: last year, 30 school buses were purchased and roads were repaired for UAH 300 million only at the expense of the budgets of village councils.”

That was how the debates on the topic "Why should hromadas amalgamation?" started. The event, held in Ivano-Frankivsk, was organised by the Swiss-Ukrainian project "Decentralisation Support in Ukraine" (DESPRO) with the assistance of the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast State Administration and Ivano-Frankivsk Local Government Development Centre, established with the support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme and MinRegion.

This is for the third time that DESPRO has been holding such debates. The question of whether hromadas should amalgamate has already been discussed in the town of Krasnokutsk in the Kharkiv Oblast and in the town of Zhovkva, Lviv Oblast.

According to the head of DESPRO Oksana Harnets, the purpose of these events is to better inform those, who influence hromadas’ amalgamation, of the essence of the reforms of local self-government and territorial organisation of power, and decentralisation of power, etc.

“The reform of decentralisation of power does not have open opponents,” said Oksana Harnets. “We rather see managers lacking flexibility, who do not want to change their own world picture, although they acknowledge its imperfection. But Ukraine is now in a situation where it is just necessary to work in a different way. We must do our best to make the state work like a Swiss watch.”

The debates were attended by the heads and deputies of local councils, representatives of pedagogical, medical groups and the public of the Horodenka, Rohatyn, Tlumach, Tysmenytsya Rayons, as well as leaders of AHs and starostas from other regions of Ukraine, experts.

The full version is available in Ukrainian – please click HERE