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Ukrainian president submits new package of decentralization amendments to parliament

The database entry says the package has been "submitted for replacement," but provides no explanatory note or full text of the new bill

KIEV, December 29. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has submitted a new draft package of constitutional amendments regarding decentralization of power in his country, according to the parliament’s official database of legislative initiatives.

The database entry says the package has been "submitted for replacement," but provides no explanatory note or full text of the new bill.

On December 13, the Ukrainian president tabled a constitutional amendment draft regarding decentralization of power to parliament. The explanatory note to the document said it was "drafted in line with the European Charter of Local Self-Government," and envisaged a three-tier local self administration system. However, the document made no mention of the special status for conflict-hit eastern Ukrainian regions. The initiative was criticized by the opposition for attempting to concentrate clout in the president’s hands. Regional authorities also voiced their opposition to the document.

Decentralization issue

In an attempt to end the armed conflict in the east of Ukraine the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany launched peace negotiations in Minsk, which produced a package of peace settlement agreements. They provide for granting a special local self-government status to Donbass within Ukraine and general amnesty for the participants in the armed conflict.

A reform of local self-government began in Ukraine in 2014 under the then President Pyotr Poroshenko but was not completed. The reform envisages amending the constitution to shift the competences of regional and district state administrations to executive committees of elected regional and district council. Apart from that, the reform establishes the institute of prefects who will be appointed by the head of state and will be in charge of supervision of the legal compliance in territorial communities.

In early September, Zelensky issued an order to complete the decentralization reform and conduct local elections under the new rules in 2020. The pro-presidential Servant of the People party said later that the reform would be finished by the spring of 2020.

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