Kyiv experts appreciated the breakthrough of democracy instruments in Uzhgorod

Thanks to the reform and initiatives of the new local government, the mechanisms of local democracy in Uzhgorod have improved. It was noted by experts of the Ukrainian Independent Center for Political Research – Ivan Lukerya and Maxim Latsyba at the meeting with community activists Volodymyr Feskov, Mykola Yatskov and the administrator of the executive committee Oleksandr Volosyansky.

Experts analyzed charters of regional centers of the country, including Uzhgorod. Actually, they monitored the previous, pre-revolutionary "version" of our government, and thus they found out: "for the city residents, it was very bad."

"It was nice to see that this year in April, three mechanisms of local democracy in Uzhgorod became the best among the regional centers of the country. These are public hearings that can be initiated in Uzhgorod by 30 people, the adoption of the provisions on the Public Council and local initiatives – the procedure by which any Uzhgorod resident may submit draft decisions to the City Council session", – Maxim Latsyba said.

"After the revolution, a huge breakthrough took place in Uzhgorod. We have adopted the provisions on the Public Council, local initiatives and public hearings. Before that, Uzhgorod residents had no opportunity to develop draft decisions and submit them to the city council session. Now people can gather, vote, sign draft decisions, coordinate them with the municipality, submit for approval. Everything has changed dramatically," – Oleksandr Volosyansky stressed.

Experts, who, in fact, developed laws on access to public information and administrative services, said that there still was a room to grow and improve for Uzhgorod. And then offered to introduce such instruments of democracy as public examination of local government decisions and public consultation.

And to make Uzhgorod residents read and know the Charter of their hometown, experts suggested to promote it – for example to issue it along with passports to citizens who receive this document for the first time.