Municipal policy as a priority area of legal policy in the context of reforming the territorial organisation of power and European integration of Ukraine

One of the determining factors in the establishment of capable local self-government is the optimisation of the decision-making process relating to local self-government. Most importantly, this refers to the coordinated and mutually coordinated activity of various public authorities, including their interaction both among themselves and with citizens. After all, over the past few years, relations between the government and citizens have deteriorated, in particular due to too high a degree of “secrecy” or “estrangement of the ruling elite” from the average citizen, and lack of real opportunity to influence decision -making, both state and local levels. In this context, the development of an active society that is ready to defend its interests and take part in rule-making, both at the national and local levels, is vital. Establishing interaction between the rulemaker and the public is one of a set of steps that can bring Ukraine closer to European standards of democracy. The primary need in such a situation is the revision of the current legislation on appeals (petitions) of citizens, public discussions and consultations, including the development of legal foundations for the introduction of new practices of public opinion.

Furthermore, to ensure a full opportunity for citizens to take part in the management of both state and local affairs, it is necessary to create an appropriate legal framework for not only national but also local referendums, the organisation and conduct of which is currently not governed by Ukrainian legislation. This, in turn, implies: a) the need for a clear definition of the subject of the referendum; b) bringing the regulation of the procedure for preparing and holding referendums in line with the provisions of the election legislation; c) introduction of mechanisms that would prevent the use of the institution of referendums to achieve the political goals of a government; d) creation of legal foundations for conducting local public polls, separating their subject from the subject of relevant referendums, simultaneously consolidating the non-imperative nature of decisions made through public polls and the obligation to consider their results by corresponding public authorities. Important, but understudied and insufficiently regulated is the issue of involving specialists, experts in the decision-making process on local self-government issues, both in the development and during the examination and discussion of draft decisions, including in the ongoing decentralisation reform, which should become an effective basis for ensuring the broad rights of citizens in modern conditions, including direct involvement in addressing pressing issues of community development, regions, state.

Therefore, the implementation of concerted and coordinated actions of both public authorities and local governments, including members of the public to improve the legal regulation of rule -making activities in Ukraine in general, including the process of developing local regulations of local government in particular, further harmonisation of Ukrainian legislation and European Union, which is manifested in the convergence of the national legal system and its subsystems with the legal system of the European Union and the requirements of international law and standards, including training of qualified personnel, in our opinion, are determinants of successful development of Ukraine [33]. This may include, inter alia, the following measures: determining the types and legal force of regulations (including regulations of local self-government), establishing the procedure for their preparation, adoption, entry into force, rules of interpretation, accounting and systematisation; training of specialists in this field; improving mechanisms for involving citizens in decision-making, including by reviewing current legislation on the organisation and conduct of referendums, access to public information, consideration of citizens' appeals, organisation of public control, public examination of draft decisions, etc.; termination of the practice of adopting acts, the successful implementation of which is not ensured by the relevant financial and other conditions, revision of available regulations on their security.

Finally, a unified approach to the design and development of municipal policy of Ukraine, its definition and conceptualisation will help define a common strategy and tactics of legal development of society, improving the mechanism of legal regulation, ensuring human and civil rights and freedoms. The combination of efforts of leading theorists and practitioners around the scientific substantiation of the development of capable local self-government can have a positive impact on improving the system of local self-government and the development of individual territorial communities, and hence the state in general.

In this context, it is important to monitor the implementation of municipal policy. When considering this issue, it is vital to understand the very concept of legal monitoring, the list of officials/bodies, organisations, and persons authorised to implement it, including the mechanism for ensuring its implementation. However, these issues are not described by the unity of scientific approaches to their understanding, as well as the legal regulation of subject-object composition, powers (rights and responsibilities), and other elements.

In particular, the Law of Ukraine “On the Principles of National Regional Policy” stipulates that monitoring of the implementation of national regional policy is carried out by establishing appropriate indicators, the list of which is determined by the Methodology for Monitoring the Implementation of National Regional Policy approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine [34]. Thus, in accordance with the provisions of the Law, the effectiveness of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, oblast, Kyiv, and Sevastopol city state administrations is monitored and evaluated to supervise the implementation of national regional policy, identify regional development issues and their causes, and improve managerial decisions of executive bodies in the field of regional development. The implementation of the national regional policy is monitored by determining the list of indicators, tracking their dynamics, preparation and publication of the results of such monitoring and includes: monitoring the implementation of indicators of the objectives of the documents that determine the national regional policy; monitoring of socio-economic development of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, oblasts, cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol.

For example, ministries, other central executive bodies, the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, oblast, Kyiv, and Sevastopol city state administrations submit an analytical note to the Ministry of Regional Development on socio-economic development of regions and urgent problems together with proposals for their solution in accordance with the form established by the Ministry of Regional Development. In particular, the Methodology includes the following indicators (subject to quarterly evaluation): economic efficiency; investment development and external economic cooperation; financial self-sufficiency; labour market efficiency; infrastructure development; renewable energy, and energy efficiency. Evaluation of the results lies in a certain comparison of the obtained data according to the corresponding formula.

Therewith, the essence and meaning of the term “monitoring”, and specifically “monitoring the implementation of municipal policy”, does not fit exclusively within the economic indicators (certain statistics), and is much more extensive. As an element of the legal system of society, legal monitoring is one of the tools to ensure the effectiveness of regulations and the practice of their application, which allows determining the current state of legislation (its quality), assess the effectiveness of legal regulation, identify reasons that hinder or prevent the achievement of the legal goals set. It is quite logical that the purpose of legal monitoring is to ensure the effective operation of the entire process of effective regulation of public relations. Therefore, the object of legal monitoring is public relations, which are covered by the scope of law and require appropriate legal regulation, and the subject -- the relevant regulations and public relations, which are under the regulatory influence of such norms. In this regard, the main tasks of legal monitoring include identifying shortcomings in legal regulation and determining the effectiveness of legal norms for the systematisation and improvement of legislation; identifying trends and needs in the legal regulation of a certain scope of public relations; establishing the possibility and necessity of perception of foreign experience in the development of democratic legal institutions. These activities should be performed within the constitutional powers of public authorities and local governments, public organisations [35]. The essence of this activity is to collect and summarise information on the state of legislation, practice of its application, and its purpose - to identify their compliance with the projected result of legal regulation, including the expectations of participants (officials, civil society institutions, citizens). Monitoring should be performed at different levels and stages and in accordance with the tasks. The current legislation is yet to introduce a comprehensive approach to understanding the essence of this activity, especially in the context of monitoring the implementation of municipal policy. On the contrary, it is described by disorganisation, fragmentation, unprofessionalism, misunderstanding of the significance of its results for the further socio-economic development of the state and local self-government, etc.

Given these problems, which are addressed by a set of measures to decentralise reform, given the substantial ideological, cultural changes, including the complexity of modern socio-economic transformations, today one of the important tasks of the state as a whole is to ensure the development of capable local government, stimulating local innovative development, transition from the national municipal policy to the development of municipal policy as a system of strategic management of self-governing activities. After all, the modern socio-economic development of regions, individual territories and communities must be ensured based on the implementation of effective mechanisms of municipal policy. The mechanism of state regulation of regional development should be determined at both regional and local levels and based on the use of local resources, economic restructuring, environmental, demographic, social and numerous other problems, and municipal - considering the interests of the state and prioritising local interests.

The authors of the present paper believe that ensuring high results and dynamic, balanced regional and local development is possible only through close cooperation of all levels of government and administration. Therewith, today, as never before, there is a detachment of different levels of government, an inability to accept and listen to each other's problems and suggestions, etc.

In turn, the main activities of local authorities (currently local state administrations and local governments) in the regulation of socio-economic development at the regional and local levels include: 1) involvement in the development and further implementation of not only national, but also regional and local development strategies and programmes; 2) assistance and support of economic entities of the relevant territory, region in matters of organisational and methodological support, logistical and advisory assistance (new approaches and mechanisms are gradually being introduced); 3) assistance in the acquisition of new technologies and implementation of local innovative projects of enterprises (mainly on the initiative of business entities themselves, with the involvement of local governments); 4) promoting the development of infrastructure (currently with great difficulty given the ongoing reform process, including medical, educational, and other reforms); 6) stimulating the manufacture of new products (given the substantial slowdown in global economic development, including through the threatening scale of the pandemic and other threats); 7) improvement of resource provision by financing from local budgets and attraction of investment resources, etc. (only in some communities, subject to cooperation between local governments and businesses of interest) [36].

The ongoing process of reforming local self-government and territorial organisation of power in Ukraine, including the processes of improving all levels of the executive branch due to the spread of decentralisation and reorganisation of public administration considerably complicate the development of municipal policy as a system of strategic self-government.

Conclusions

Based on the above, the authors of this study outline the following main blocks of issues that require the use of a comprehensive scientific approach to their legislative solution:

Completion of the ongoing reform of territorial organisation of government and local self-government requires the development of appropriate municipal policy as a system of goals, priorities, areas, tasks and concrete measures for creation of an effective mechanism of municipal legal regulation, for development and modernisation of local self-government in the country. Both the development and implementation of this policy should involve not only public authorities, but also local governments, interested civil society institutions and local communities.

A local regulatory framework for the establishment and development of affluent communities should be created (at the level of Strategies, Action Plans for the implementation of the latter, etc.).

It is necessary to ensure a clear division of powers between local state administrations and local selfgovernment bodies, including the redistribution of powers in the system of local self-government bodies, considering the principle of subsidiarity.

Training and advisory centres of local self-government bodies should be established to improve the skills of deputies of local councils, officials, and officers of local self-government bodies on the above- mentioned development issues at the local level.

It is necessary to redistribute funds in favour of local budgets and finance local projects within the objectives of the ongoing reform.

The goals, objectives, and ways of reform stated in the Concept of Local Self-Government Reform should be reflected and stipulated in other strategies, plans, and programmes of goals, in particular regulations issued by the state. One of the means of forming a consistent and coordinated national municipal policy should be the deepening and detailing of legal regulation in the municipal sphere through the development and adoption of the Municipal Code and others.

The implementation and protection of municipal rights and freedoms of members of territorial communities requires regulatory support, including through the development and adoption of the Law “On Local Referendum”, and improving the legal regulation of other forms of local participatory democracy.

The basis for such transformations should be the reform of decentralisation of public power, which makes provision for the redistribution of powers and functions between different branches and levels, including subsystems of public power, in particular, considering the foreign practices of decentralised European countries. After all, the said practices demonstrate that the introduction of decentralisation reform has resulted not only in a substantial reduction in the effects of crises, solving many socio-economic problems, but also in the implementation of strategic objectives of national development of both leading and modern European countries.

Therefore, the highlighted issues require a comprehensive approach and concerted action of the main actors - the state, local government, the private sector, including specialists in the field of local selfgovernment. The legislative implementation of the best modern European and world practices of providing quality and affordable public services while adapting to the concepts of good governance, e-governance, including the use and compliance with the principles, mechanisms and means of new public management will increase trust in public authorities and local self-government, ensure social harmony, increase economic benefits, etc. The authors of this study argue that changes in the system of government and the territory will open wide opportunities to meet the vital needs and interests of citizens, ensure a high level of quality and structure of consumption of material, social, cultural goods, because they correspond to human nature and purpose and create optimal conditions for its self-fulfilment. Furthermore, a comprehensive approach is required in the implementation of strategies, concepts and plans for the digitalisation of state and public life.

Thus, a certain result of the ongoing decentralisation reform should be an awareness not only of the nature of local government as a special form of public authority, but, above all, awareness of the indisputable fact that local governments, considering the legislative and practical implementation of the principles of subsidiarity and decentralisation, underlying their organisation and activities should become those entities that will be in organisationally, legally and financially capable of ensuring local socio-economic development.

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