Weekly analysis for 04 — 10 November

Law on Ensuring Legality and Transparency in the Activities of Local Self-Government Bodies Adopted

Event
On November 5, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine to Ensure Legality and Transparency in the Activities of Local Self-Government Bodies” (draft law № 14048). On November 10, the President of Ukraine signed the Law.

The Law introduces amendments to the Laws of Ukraine “On Local Self-Governance in Ukraine”, “On Local State Administrations”, as well as to the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine.

Furthermore, to strengthen the legality in the local self-government bodies’ activities, the draft Law also contains provisions aimed at ensuring legality in the activities of territorial bodies of ministries and other central executive authorities.

CPLR’s assessment

The experts of the Center of Policy and Legal Reform (CPLR) had previously drawn the attention of members of parliament to several shortcomings in draft law № 14048 and submitted proposals to address them. However, these recommendations were not considered.

On the contrary, during the preparation of draft law № 14048 for its second reading, number of negative amendments were introduced.

The main shortcoming lies in the redefinition of the scope of state supervision over the legality of acts adopted by local self-government bodies. Initially, it was proposed that state supervision should apply to both regulatory acts of local self-government bodies and individual acts adopted or issued in violation of the law, beyond the limits of authority, or in breach of established procedures. The main purpose of state supervision over legality is to prevent violations of human rights in the activities of local self-government bodies.

However, according to the adopted Law, state supervision will be limited to acts issued by local self-government bodies in the exercise of powers delegated to them by the state — and only to ensure their compliance with the law.

The nature of delegated powers implies that they remain within the jurisdiction of the state authority that delegates them. According to Part 4 of Article 143 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the exercise of such powers by local self-government bodies should be subject to state control, rather than state supervision.

Throughout the entire history of local self-governance in Ukraine, these bodies have been granted delegated powers by law. State control over the implementation of these powers has also been exercised by the relevant state authorities.

Furthermore, during the preparation of the draft law for its second reading, the provisions introducing a personnel reserve for the positions of heads of district state administrations were removed. This decision indicates a lack of intention to restore civil service status to the heads and members of local state administrations, even in the future.

Thus, the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine to Ensure Legality and Transparency in the Activities of Local Self-Government Bodies” of November 5, 2025, № 4677-IX fails to achieve even a single objective of the local state administration reform as originally planned in the more progressive versions of draft law № 4298. In particular, the law fails to establish mechanism for state supervision over the legality of acts adopted by local self-government bodies in exercising their own powers, not to mention addressing the broader objectives of the reform.