Prime Minister: I will struggle to protect interests of territorial communities, despite all the attempts of populists to slow down the process of decentralization

The process of decentralization and amalgamation of territorial communities that independently adopt socio-economic decisions directed to the development of their regions is gaining momentum and will continue, despite the attempts of some political forces to slow it down and to thwart the transformation, in particular participating in elections and engaging in outright struggle for power without understanding what, actually, decentralization means. This was stated by Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman during the meeting with representatives of regional media dedicated to the theme "Decentralization. Success stories. New challenges".

"Today the political forces are eager through the elections to be deputies at the territorial communities - even those who do not support the decentralization process. For example, the Motherland party – they have not voted for any decentralization law on the instruction of Ms. Tymoshenko. She does not take decentralization seriously. Or, for instance, the Self-Reliance Party. We started the reform together, encouraged mayors to participate, made certain progress, but in a while some of them began to thwart this reform", explained the Head of Government.

However, he added that despite all attempts to discredit the reform, only in the budget of the city of Lviv there had accumulated more than UAH 2 billion of additional resources.

"The essential component is the community. And I will fight for the communities having the resources, possessing lands, for preventing them from kneeling down to someone. I'm on the side of the communities and local governance. I'm committed to prolong my efforts and make anyone get this position”, said Volodymyr Groysman. “Unfortunately, the level of our political culture is such that our politicians struggle for power instead of fighting for Ukraine. I am fighting for Ukraine".

The Head of Government added that he expected by the end of year the law on the transfer of lands under the jurisdiction of local communities would be adopted.

"Communities must be self-sufficient”, stressed the Head of Government. “The draft law on the use of land has been submitted for the Parliament’s consideration. I believe, before the end of the year it will be endorsed. It is crucial to wind up with this issue."