President Petro Poroshenko stresses that decentralization is one of the most efficient reforms of those implemented in the country recently. "Decentralization is my child, and I will work hard on this project just as long as the Ukrainian people leave me in power", the President said during a speech at the XIV Ukrainian Municipal Forum.
The Head of State expressed his conviction that this reform should be the subject of joint work. "As long as I am President, I will not allow the revision of this course. Because decentralization is in the interests of communities, their residents, and all citizens of Ukraine. And Ukraine becomes stronger when communities become stronger, when nobody raises the voice to offer us separatism and federalization", he added.
"Time has shown that we were not mistaken in calculations. The course turned out to be absolutely correct, and decentralization was efficient", the Head of State said.
Petro Poroshenko reminded that he had proclaimed the course for decentralization in his election program and started implementing it immediately after the election. He called it extremely important that this direction was supported by the Government of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada and received strong support from local self-government bodies.
Thanks to this and with the support of international partners in Ukraine, it was possible "to make the maximum to implement the best foreign experience from Poland and Germany, to Norway in the implementation of the decentralization project".
"Through joint efforts, these four years have made real local self-government, the municipal government as one of the most important subjects of power law in Ukraine", - the President stressed.
Speaking about the success and results of the reform, the Head of State stressed that decentralization in the first place brought authorities closer to the people. Secondly, it contributes to the solution of many infrastructural and social problems in the best way. "And from this our country becomes much stronger. Why go and ask in Kiev where to build a hospital, a kindergarten and what in the first place? What is the priority of local authorities? And this country's power is especially important in the background of the struggle against Russian aggression", said Petro Poroshenko.
The third, extremely important point - decentralization is in line with the European integration plans of Ukraine, "because our decentralization is fully synchronized with the European charter of local self-government."
But most importantly, decentralization is an effective part of the state's anti-corruption strategy, President said. "It reduces the influence of the state, more precisely, its authorized persons, on the distribution of monetary resources, de-monopolizes, disperses financial power", he stated, since changes to the tax and budget laws provided the basis for an effective fiscal decentralization policy. All this greatly increased the financial capacity of local self-government and contributed to a significant increase in revenues to the general fund of local budgets, emphasized Petro Poroshenko.
The head of state reminded that this course was formed in extremely difficult conditions, when Ukraine at that time just resisted the attempts of the Russian Federation to arrange artificial federalization and Moscow resorted to armed aggression against us. When our state had to work on the creation of a new Ukrainian army that needed a lot of money.
According to the President, the numerous official bureaucracy of central executive authorities was no less opposed to decentralization as they were afraid of losing financial flows, which all the time, all 26 years of our independence, were constantly fedding them. "You know it like nobody. And nobody could have dreamed that the queues of "walkers" disappeared, which would have asked every hryvnia to solve the most acute issues of the oblast, city or district", said Petro Poroshenko.
At present, representatives of local communities, the local authorities state a radical change in the situation due to the reform, the Head of State emphasized. "Recently, I met with the mayor of one regional center-millionaire, and with representatives of local self-government, I asked – being in the chair for three years, have you brought money to Kiev at least once? Have you brought it to get money for the development of the city? There was an absolutely clear answer - no. That is not the case anymore. Nobody touches me, nobody calls me, nobody imposes bidders, no one puts any funding requirements on, nobody is "twisting hands". If I ask what decentralization is - that's exactly what it is. Your responsibility, your powers, your rights", - said the President.
"So, it's not for nothing four years ago, both I, as the President, and all the political leadership of the country started decentralization, which eventually became the key and most effective reform, or one of the most effective, together with the visa-free regime, the Association Agreement, the reform of the defense and security sector. By definition, including the whole world, decentralization has become one of the most effective reforms in the state", - summed up Petro Poroshenko.
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