Volodymyr Groysman met with Under-Secretary for Communities and Local Government Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The course of a local self-government reform in Ukraine and prospects of development of local communities were the topics for the discussion at a meeting of Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Volodymyr Groysman and Under-Secretary of the UK Parliament, Department for Communities and Local Government Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon.

Lord Ahmad arrived to Ukraine to participate in a Conference "Municipal consolidation in Europe: trends and solutions to amalgamation and cooperation", organized by the Ministry of Regional Development and the Council of Europe and held on 25-26 September in Kyiv.

He stressed that the UK supports Ukraine's aspirations for independence and sovereignty on the way of overcoming the Russian aggression. According to him, Britain played an important role in imposing by European countries of sanctions against Russia. The Under-Secretary also welcomed the plans of Ukraine to introduce reforms.

"For the UK and Ukraine such values are common," he said.

In turn, Volodymyr Groysman noted that the President of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Government is determined to implement reforms, in particular, in decentralization of power, finance area, local self-government. Problems exist at the level of Parliament.

"Today the Parliament is not capable to make decisions on reforms, so the President of Ukraine decided to terminate the powers of the Verkhovna Rada, and the country is preparing for the snap elections", - he stressed.

According to Volodymyr Groysman, each community - even a small one - should be involved in the economic life of the country, but through excessive centralization of power we have a counter effect.

“Just imagine that people who possess a real storage of opportunities, initiatives, in fact, appear excluded from the life of the country. It is similar to the situation when the best fertile soils aren’t sown in the period of food shortages,” Volodymyr Groysman said.

The parties agreed that the transfer of powers to the local authorities should be accompanied by transparent activities and responsibility of communities.

"Openness and responsibility are the essential principles which must be the basis to build a system of local self-government in Ukraine on", - said Vice Prime Minister.