Rada approves international cooperation of hromadas: what is expected
Kyiv • UNN
The Verkhovna Rada adopted a bill that improves the participation of local governments in inter-territorial, cross-border and transnational cooperation, prohibits cooperation with the aggressor state and allows district councils and military administrations to initiate such cooperation.
The Verkhovna Rada has adopted as a whole the draft law No. 9450 on international cooperation of local self-government, UNN reports, citing MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak.
No. 9450 - improving the participation of local self-government in inter-territorial and cross-border cooperation - in general (256)
Vitaliy Bezghin, MP and chairman of the Subcommittee on Administrative and Territorial Organization and Local Self-Government, told us about the changes for the second reading earlier. According to the MP, the draft law contains several important innovations.
Firstly, the area of influence has changed - now the project will cover even more territory.
Second, such cooperation will be divided into inter-territorial, cross-border, and transnational.
The innovations also provide for a ban on inter-territorial cooperation with the aggressor state.
District councils, among others, will now become subjects of cooperation. They will be able to initiate cooperation, launch projects in subregions, and so on. And the heads of military administrations will be able to initiate cooperation if such a military administration is granted self-governing powers by the parliament.
"Draft law 9450 is about the systematic implementation of joint projects funded by EU funds, in particular, it provides a clear algorithm of actions for communities/districts/regions to work with international partners, from finding an international partner to implement a joint project to signing an agreement and implementing the project," Bezghin said.
According to him, the updated draft also describes in detail the algorithm for approving a draft cooperation agreement by the Ministry of Infrastructure, including clear deadlines, restrictions on arbitrary non-approval of projects, etc.
