Decentralisation in Ukraine is a series of reforms to give additional power and resources to

local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

. This process was intended to advance

regional development Regional development is a broad term but can be seen as a general effort to reduce regional disparities by supporting (employ) economin regions. In the past, regional development policy tended to try to achieve these objectives by means developmen ...

and

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

reform. Successful steps have been taken.

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...

Georg Milbradt Georg Milbradt (born 23 February 1945) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister-President of Saxony from 2002 to 2008. Early life Milbradt was born in Eslohe. His family originally was from Wągrowie ...

and Hugues Mingarelli praised the reforms. In opinion of financial experts (PhD Yеvhеn Мarynсhak) decentralizing

public funds Government spending or expenditure includes all government consumption, investment, and transfer payments. In national income accounting, the acquisition by governments of goods and services for current use, to directly satisfy the individual o ...

of territorial communities, the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

should use real instruments that can help create a strong regional economy on the territory.

Reforms

The decentralization reform had the following provisions: * Strengthen

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...

; * Change administrative-territorial structure; * Consolidate the “principle of omnipresence” ( local governments are defined by lands on the territory of settlements); *

Empower EmPower is a brand name that refers to three different power outlets available on commercial airlines: * 15-Volt, 75 Watt DC connector (now called EmPower Classic by the vendor) * 5-Volt, 10 Watt USB power-only jacks * 110-Volt, AC power jacks (some ...

local government with sufficient powers and resources; * Reflect historical,

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

, environmental and cultural characteristics when planning the development of United territorial communities; * Transfer roles that local governments can perform to

; The reform consists of three key components: *

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

of the territorial organisation of

power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

* Reform of local

self-government __NOTOC__ Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form of ...

* Reform of

regional policy Regional policy is the sum of a series of policies formulated according to regional differences to coordinate regional relations and regional macro operation mechanism, which affects regional development at the macro level. It includes regional ec ...

History

After Ukraine gained independence in 1991, the state increased local/regional government powers. In 1997 Ukraine ratified the

European Charter of Local Self-Government The European Charter of Local Self-Government was adopted under the auspices of the Congress of the Council of Europe and was opened for signature by the Council of Europe's member states on 15 October 1985. All Council of Europe member states a ...

, and adopted regulatory acts that established such powers. However, discussions concerning larger scale organisation as a rule concerned the distribution of powers at the national level. Following Euromaidan in 2014, the new government launched a national project "Decentralisation" (

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

: Національний проект "Децентралізація"), on 1 April. The government of Volodymyr Groysman identified support for decentralisation as one of its priorities.

Results

During the reform, local budget revenues grew from UAH 68.6 billion in 2014 to UAH 146.6 billion in 2016. By the end of 2017, local budget revenues had reached UAH 170.7 billion. In addition,

amalgamated hromada An amalgamated hromada or amalgamated territorial community ( uk, об'єднана територіальна громада, translit=obiednana terytorialna hromada), also known as a united territorial community, was a special unit of administra ...

s became more active in the process of budget formation: during the first 10 months of 2017, amalgamated hromadas increased their own revenues by 80%, while national revenues grew by only 31.8%. In addition, ''

per capita ''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...

'' development expenditures in January-September 2017 increased by 225% compared to 2016 (for example: in communities without amalgamated hromada, growth was only 50%). From 2014 to 2017, state support for the development of amalgamated hromadas and their infrastructure increased from 0.5 billion UAH up to 14.9 billion UAH.

International support

Donor agencies, embassies and multilateral organisations are financing and implementing programs and decentralization projects via a Donor Board. The following projects and organisations are very active:
U-LEAD with Europe
Programme – multi-donor action of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

and its Member States

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Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and Sweden, implemented by GIZ (German development agency) and Sida ( agency of the

Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs The Ministry for Foreign Affairs ( sv, Utrikesdepartementet, UD) is responsible for Swedish foreign policy. History The ministry for Foreign Affairs was created in 1791 when King Gustav III set up ''Konungens kabinett för den utrikes brevv ...

) * DESPRO – Swiss-Ukrainian Project, funded by the

Swiss Confederation ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

through SDC and implemented by Skat *

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

-funde
DOBRE
program * Joint

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

/ EU Project – “Community Based Approach to Local Development”

References

{{reflist

Reforms

History

Results

International support

References

See also