Improvement of the constitutional basis of local self-government in Ukraine

Abstract

The article reveals the problems of constitutional and legal regulation of municipal reform, which negatively affect its effectiveness. There is a need to improve the legal personality of the territorial community in terms of the right to exercise power directly, which would strengthen its position as the primary subject of local self-government. The problem could be solved positively by granting the status of a legal entity under public law to the territorial community, but currently, in the conditions of hostilities in the east of the state and temporary occupation of Ukraine, it is impractical to change its status due to the threat of loss of territorial integrity. It is argued that the lack of the right of district and oblast councils to have their own executive bodies has a negative impact on the efficiency and completeness of functioning in the system of local self-government. It is proposed that in order to successfully continue the reform of local self-government, it is proposed to adopt laws that would regulate the issues of the administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine and strengthen supervision over the legality of decisions of local self-government bodies.

The objective need to amend the Constitution of Ukraine in terms of improving the legal status of territorial communities, granting the right to regional and district councils to create executive bodies, delimitation of public authority on the basis of decentralization and subsidiarity, consolidation of a new system of administrative-territorial organization with division into regions, districts and communities, transformation of local state administrations into prefectural bodies and endowing them with coordination and supervisory functions. Prior to the introduction of these constitutional changes, it is necessary to adopt laws within the current Constitution of Ukraine, which will ensure the continuation of local self-government reform.