Decentralization in Ukrainian: communities, prefects and red button

The last week will certainly leave a mark in the history of Ukrainian lawmaking, but the real explosion in media and social networks caused not fundamental changes in the Constitution presented by President Peter Poroshenko (the text appeared on the parliamentary site on the evening of July 2), and the Verkhovna Rada adopted by two scandalous laws.

The first - the so -called Ganna Gopko law hit the small business, “equalized beer with vodka” and, by the general opinion, actually destroyed the recent years of small brewery with copyright beer. The second, in turn, was dubbed by the “Sotnik Parasyuk” law (option - Tsiprasyuk) or “shot the country in the stomach”. He was adopted by the absolute majority (“against” one deputy Ruslan Demchak voted and immediately became famous), hit the course of hryvnias, threatened to receive the next tranche from the IMF and forced to talk about Ukraine as “northern Greece”.

We are talking about the Law 1558-1 about the restructuring of foreign exchange loans: the deputies voted to pay loans at a fixed rate: what was at the time of receiving the loan, we pay for this. That is, at the current dollar year 1: 23.5, we pay at the rate of 1: 5.05. Actually, the problem is not even in the law: no one doubted that the president was vested and the deputies would begin to recall his voices the very next day. The problem is that this radi was as illiterate and populist as all the others, who preceded it that, voting, the deputies did not think about the holey Ukrainian budget, but about their own financial interest and glasses that they may have taken in the local elections. Although, judging by the violent reaction in social networks, the calculation of populism is no longer working and the basics of the economy have mastered in the country everything ... except for the people's chosen ones.

Against this background, the constitutional reform, submitted for discussion, but even previously supported by the Venetian commission (the advisory body on constitutional law under the Council of Europe - “Hedgehog”), it turned out to be, to put it mildly, in the shadows. It concerned mainly local communities (communities) and the order of local elections, i.e. Decentralization - in fact, those provisions that were mentioned last fall in Minsk. It is the community that should become the manager of the land, movable and immovable property, resources and finance (local taxes and fees). According to the new law, the institution of heads of state administrations, which are now appointed from Kyiv, will be canceled. Operational management of regions and regions will go into the jurisdiction of executive committees, which are formed by local councils. However, the stick turned out to be about the two ends, and, “letting go” in one place, the center “pulled out the crush” in another.

“The executive committees are accountable and controlled only by the elected tips of the corresponding level. ... there are quite logical fears, but will there be harm to decentralization of the unity of our country, does it bring at least hypothetical risks for territorial integrity? We burned so much in milk that we should blow in water. I emphasize once again: decentralization does not mean weakening the central government in issues such as defense, foreign policy, national security, the rule of law, and compliance with civil freedoms. Going to wide decentralization, we must reliably insure ourselves with the enemy’s attempts to use new and extremely wide powers of local communities to violate sovereignty and territorial integrity, ”Poroshenko said.

As a result, the governors (heads of administrations) appointed from Kyiv will be replaced by prefects appointed from Kyiv. Prefects, according to Poroshenko, will not be related to the budget and financial flows, they will only “exercise control” over the implementation of Ukrainian legislation. And since local councils will make decisions that will “create a threat to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security of Ukraine”, the powers of such councils will be suspended, the Constitutional Court will have to give a legal assessment, and the Verkhovna Rada will decide on the appointment of extraordinary elections of the relevant council or the chairman of the community.

Decentralization, thus, will affect the economic and administrative life of local communities, as for the political life of the political, then commentators, on the contrary, see the strengthening of the presidential power, since the president appoints prefects and they are accountable to the president. However, the right to dismiss the prefects is from the Cabinet, and in this all the same commentators tend to see the ground for future conflicts. In addition, the developers of the law were forced to clarify the president’s sole right to “suspend” the activities of local authorities in the event of a “threat of sovereignty”: “We have already encountered the manifestations of separatism in the east of Ukraine,” the administration of Poroshenko said. - In order to make such manifestations impossible in the future, the right of the President is urgently stopping decisions that pose a threat to sovereignty, national security and territorial integrity. There can be no usurpation, this is for emergency cases. No one is going to use these powers for any reason. It's like a red button. "

In this context, it should be noted that a separate paragraph, which was included in the new provisions of the Constitution at the insistence of the Venetian commission, is devoted to the "characteristics of local government in certain administrative-territorial units of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions." In fact, the Ukrainian constitution legalizes the very “special status of individual regions”, which was adopted in Minsk under pressure, but Kyiv reserves the right to the “red button”.

So, the constitutional changes proposed by President Poroshenko suggest the reform of local self -government. One of the main issues that Ukrainian political scientists are being discussed now is the terms of its implementation and how this reform will affect local elections appointed in October, whether they will be postponed. In principle, they can technically be carried out already within the framework of the new Constitution: it is already represented in parliament and according to the regulations should be voted at two sessions. The current session ends in mid -July, the next will begin in early September.


Photo: President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko submitted a draft amendments to the Constitution / Sergey Dolzhenko / ERA / TASS