The efficiency of the use of mechanisms of the territorial communities’ cooperation in conditions of the authorities’ decentralization

Abstract

Cooperation between the territorial communities in Ukraine is nowadays one of the important directions of the local governance reform. The Constitution of Ukraine provides an opportunity to combine the municipal facilities and the funds of budgets for the implementation of joint projects or joint funding (maintenance) of municipal companies, organizations, and institutions, and create the respective managing bodies and services. The opportunity is implemented based on the adoption of the relevant legislation. In 1997, Ukraine ratified the European Charter of Local Self-Governance, which grants a right to local authorities to cooperate with other local authorities while performing its competences to accomplish the tasks that are of the common interest. The paper aims to research the efficiency of the use of the mechanisms of the territorial communities’ cooperation in conditions of the authorities’ decentralization. The paper analyzes the regulations directed at the support of cooperation between the territorial communities in conditions of the authorities’ decentralization. The features of cooperation between the territorial communities are outlined. The statistical information is monitored, and on this basis, the information on the condition of cooperation between the territorial communities in Ukraine in 2015-2019 is grouped and characterized. The conclusions on such cooperation are made. The mechanisms of cooperation between the territorial communities are examined. The advantages and positive effects that the communities can obtain in case of efficient cooperation are determined. The nature of joint projects is defined. The conceptual scheme of a territorial communities’ cooperation project is constructed. The ways to overcome the problems and measures to activate the cooperation between the territorial communities are suggested. The projects of communities’ cooperation as a tool to consolidate resources and accomplish the clearly defined objective are proven to be the ground for optimization of the administrative and territorial structure of the country, overcoming the depressive condition of certain areas, and creation of growth poles.