CONCEPTS AND CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF THE UNITED TERRITORIAL COMMUNITY

Abstract

The article analyzed the concept of “territorial community” and asked the legislator about the interpretation of the concept of “united territorial community” on the basis of which it was possible to identify such a problem as the absence of a legislative interpretation of this concept, and indicated the importance of its availability in order to prevent false statements in the future. In our work, the characteristic features of united territorial communities are investigated, the features include: voluntariness, transparency and openness, constitutionality and legality, economic efficiency, state support, ubiquity of local self-government and accountability. We also decided to get acquainted with the main stages of the process of uniting the territorial communities to which belong: initiating a voluntary association; public discussion of the voluntary association proposal; adoption by the council of a decision to grant consent to voluntary unification and delegation of a representative to develop a draft decision on voluntary unification; accepting by government decision on voluntary association; submitting a decision to the regional state administration to provide an opinion on the compliance of this project with the Constitution and laws of Ukraine; the prescript of the head of the regional state administration regarding compliance of this project with the Constitution and laws of Ukraine; adoption by the councils of a decision on the voluntary association of territorial communities. Also, reflecting on the fact that Ukraine wants to join the European Union, it was necessary to determine the peculiarities and characteristic features of territorial communities in the European countries of the Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany. During the analysis, it was possible to determine that Ukraine, Poland and Germany have such common features as the voluntary association of territorial communities and the expansion and specification of the sphere of activity of local government. On the basis of the above, we can note that the decentralization reform in Ukraine is developing precisely according to the European model.