Consolidating the Reform Agenda
The ongoing war has a major impact on the 1,470 Ukrainian municipalities that form a cornerstone within Ukraine’s multi-level governance, particularly as they have acquired important new policy and fiscal competences.
A large part of the required policy and legal framework for a successful decentralisation, as well as regional and local development, was in place before the war. However, there is still the need for solid legislation that makes local self-government a strong and irreversible base of governance in Ukraine.
This includes the challenges caused by the Russian aggression, the conditions of governing under martial law and the special needs and manifold challenges of restoring local democracy and local self-government in all de-occupied municipalities of Ukraine.
U-LEAD’s policy and legal advice empowers national-level actors from the Verkhovna Rada, the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet of Ministers as a whole. The resulting framework, in turn, provides the ground for municipalities to assume their role as important stakeholders in the nationwide recovery and reconstruction process, mitigating corruption risks at local level and ultimately contributing to the well-being of all Ukrainian citizens. To ensure that municipalities will have the required capacities to actually perform such proactive role, U-LEAD with Europe offers support to municipalities on the changing LSG framework.
U-LEAD with Europe works with high-level international experts to ensure that the national government and municipalities learn from international experience and best practices. To increase the chances for high-quality legislation in line with the European Charter of Local Self-Government and at the same time taking into account the needs of municipalities, our work incorporates partnerships and cooperations with Ukrainian and international organisations, think-tanks and public broadcasting outlets.
We also work towards strengthening the national framework for local finance and enhancing the capacities of municipalities to improve tax revenue mobilisation and attracting private investment. The expansion of the powers of LSGs to administer local taxes, the improvement of the property taxation system and personal income tax payment system constitute the necessary reform actions in the field of taxation.
