User:DDima/Sandbox/Decentralization

Decentralization in Ukraine refers to the constitutional reform process that is ongoing in Ukraine with regards to the country's regional and local government politics. The process was initiated as part of the coalition agreements made by leading government parties elected to the 8th Verkhovna Rada, or parliament. The process will require an amendment to the Constitution of Ukraine, a constitutional majority of 300 votes.

Decentralization encompasses many political implications for the Ukrainian government. Namely, the ways in which budgets and local taxes are applied and allocated will be under the jurisdiction of the respective local authority instead of the centralized government institutions in the capital Kiev. The current political landscape in Ukraine is highly centralized, often with local governments having little authority over their own jurisdictions.

Administrative division reform
The current structure of Ukraine's administrative divisions was inherited from the former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, encompassing the old Soviet political structure and government thinking. Many government agencies and local governments often compete for the same authority, causing an overlap of jurisdictions.



Proposed regions
In November 2015, Yuriy Lutsenko, the parliamentary faction leader of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, proposed creating the Kryvyi Rih Oblast (province) as one of Ukraine's first-level administrative regions. The oblast would be named after the city of Kryvyi Rih, currently located in the southwestern portion of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The city has a population of 654,900 (est. 2014), making it the eighth-largest city in the country. It is strategically located in the Kryvbas economic region which specializes in iron ore mining and the steel industry.