Petro Poroshenko begins decentralization of power

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a draft constitutional amendment providing for the decentralization of power while maintaining the unitary model of the state. Despite Kyiv’s desire to present innovations as political reform within the framework of the Minsk agreements, decentralization does not solve the main problem of the Ukrainian conflict: the question of future relations between Kiev and the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR. Experts interviewed by Kommersant believe that Petro Poroshenko is trying to use the reform as an argument for the West, calling on Kyiv to implement the Minsk agreements. At the same time, decentralization is intended to become a tool for dismantling the DPR and LPR, and not for their legalization.

Yesterday, Petro Poroshenko, during an 18-minute televised address, presented draft amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine regarding decentralization. The head of state explained that the author of the project submitted to the Verkhovna Rada is the Ukrainian Constitutional Commission, which he created in early March specifically to develop proposals to change the basic law of Ukraine in accordance with the Minsk agreements. Before moving on to listing the benefits of the proposed reforms, Petro Poroshenko expressed his key idea: in his words, “sociological research convincingly shows that the impressive majority of Ukrainians categorically reject the idea of federalization and speak out for a unitary structure of Ukraine with a decentralized political system.”

According to the head of state, decentralization will bring power closer to the people “at arm’s length.” “There will be no need to travel outside the city in order to solve most problems,” explained Petro Poroshenko.

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“Proper respect for local specifics and traditions, which do not contradict national interests and laws that do not contradict the basic document - the Constitution of Ukraine, will make our country stronger and stronger and will become a reliable vaccination against the bacillus of federalization,” he assured. At the same time, the Ukrainian president expressed the opinion that decentralization will become “a reliable guard against authoritarianism and dictatorship,” since it will disperse power “among thousands of subjects.” “Finally, decentralization will become another civilizational difference between us and our neighbors in the Soviet camp. Real self-government is impossible in an authoritarian state. Despotism does not tolerate either the independence of communities, or, moreover, the freedom of the citizen,” said Petro Poroshenko, noting that the proposed amendments will bring closer political system of Ukraine to the European one.

In accordance with the draft amendments, communities should become the basic unit of the administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine. The central government must not only partially cede to them powers and responsibilities, but also financial resources. The institution of heads of state administrations (governors), who are appointed from Kyiv, is abolished. Management is transferred to local executive committees, which are controlled only by elected local councils. To oversee compliance with the constitution and laws of Ukraine by local governments in districts and regions, the institution of a prefect is being introduced (in fact, these are local representatives of the president). Prefects will not be able to interfere with the operational management of local government budget flows. They will have purely supervisory functions. The president will appoint and dismiss prefects. The proposed draft does not provide for a special status for certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, but only states that it will be determined by a special law. Issues of defense, foreign policy, national security, the rule of law and civil liberties remain under the control of the central government.

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Having presented the draft amendments, Petro Poroshenko recalled that it was approved by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (see Kommersant, June 25). At the same time, he expressed the hope that the benefits of the reform would be obvious to all political forces in the country, since all of them, according to him, went to the elections with the slogan of decentralization. “Everyone promised decentralization to the people. This was in October last year. But back in April-May, during my election campaign, I firmly promised that we would carry out constitutional changes on decentralization issues,” Petro Poroshenko recalled. “As the president of the country, I expect for the support of all political forces in the Verkhovna Rada." According to the Ukrainian president, the country's authorities expect to approve the amendments this fall.

Meanwhile, the document released by the president was received with hostility even by many deputies of the ruling coalition. Yesterday they warned that the bill may not receive the three hundred votes needed for approval. Petro Poroshenko found himself between two fires: some accused him of trying to usurp power under the guise of democratic reform, others accused him of indulging separatism. Thus, Deputy Speaker Oksana Syroid, elected from the Samopomich party, said that the appointment of prefects (presidential representatives in the region) by the president “will make the government disabled.” “The prefect will carry out the will of the head of state, and the government will bear responsibility for his activities,” Mrs. Syroid was indignant.

In turn, Igor Popov, a deputy from the Radical Party, reminded Kommersant that the draft constitutional changes “are directly linked to the law on the special status of certain regions of Donbass, which does not find the support of the parliamentary majority.” “In addition, this project does not answer what money will remain in the regions, whether they will have the financial capacity to exercise their powers,” Mr. Popov was perplexed.

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“Petro Poroshenko’s speech is addressed not to Ukraine, but to the European Union. The president wants to demonstrate his desire to implement the Minsk agreements,” Igor Popov, a deputy from the Radical Party, told Kommersant. “Amendments to the constitution should be supported by a law granting special status to certain regions of Donbass, that is, territories that are not currently controlled by Kiev. But many consider this special status to be an instrument for the collapse of the country,” Mr. Popov continued.

The Ukrainian presidential administration denies such accusations. “Decentralization is one of the points of Petro Poroshenko’s peace plan. We give the regions greater rights. In fact, the public itself in the form of “communities” (communities —Kommersant ) will determine how the region develops,” Kommersant’s interlocutor commented on the proposed innovations administration of Petro Poroshenko. “But this is decentralization, not confederalization. And attempts by individual regions to gain more rights than Crimea had will lead to nothing.”

In turn, the opinions of Russian experts on the proposed innovations were divided. “The Ukrainian conflict is not the first in the former Soviet republics, the resolution of which is dominated not by attempts to find a compromise, but by considerations of geopolitics - the desire to squeeze Russia out of the post-Soviet space. This is precisely what the efforts of the Ukrainian leadership are aimed at resolving the Donbass, the result of which, according to Kyiv, should be the elimination of the current leaders of the DPR and LPR from the political scene and the dismantling of the unrecognized republics as quasi-state structures,” Sergei Markedonov, associate professor of the department of foreign regional studies and foreign policy at the Russian State University for the Humanities, explained to Kommersant.

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According to the expert, President Poroshenko's current plan for decentralization is reminiscent of proposals for a special status for Abkhazia that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili made shortly before the August 2008 war. “Just as Saakashvili rejected attempts at real dialogue with the authorities of Abkhazia, Poroshenko excludes the possibility of interaction with the leaders of the DPR and LPR.” According to Kommersant’s interlocutor, “the published amendments are a gesture primarily intended for the external consumer, namely the West, in whose eyes Ukraine wants to appear as an “excellence in the peace process.”

At the same time, according to Sergei Oznobishchev, head of the military-political analysis sector at IMEMO RAS, “the introduction of amendments to the Ukrainian constitution indicates that the process of finding a compromise between Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk launched in Minsk is working, despite the remaining fundamental differences in the positions of the parties ". “The main thing now is to preserve the spirit of Minsk. In the absence of a military solution, sooner or later Kyiv will have to come to a settlement formula that will suit not only the West, but also Russia,” says Sergei Oznobishchev.

Let us recall that earlier representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics told Kommersant about their intention to ignore the amendments to the constitution proposed by Kiev, since they were developed without consultation with the authorities of the DPR and LPR.

Sergei Strokan; Yanina Sokolovskaya, Kyiv

Original communal system