The Court proceeded to an in-camera part for a decision on the constitutionality of the Law of Ukraine
“On Voluntary Amalgamation of Territorial Hromadas"
11.03.2021
The Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at the public part of the plenary session in the form of written proceedings considered the case upon the constitutional petition of 51 People's Deputies of Ukraine on the constitutionality of paragraph 6 of Article 4.1, Article 11.3 of the Law of Ukraine "On Voluntary Amalgamation of Territorial Hromadas" of February 5, 2015 №157–VIII as amended (hereinafter - the Law).
According to the Judge-Rapporteur in the case Oleh Pervomayskyi, People's Deputies appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in order to verify the constitutionality of the disputed provisions of the Law, namely: paragraph 6 of Article 4.1, which provides that voluntary amalgamation of territorial hromadas of villages, settlements, cities is carried out in compliance with the following conditions: "amalgamation of territorial hromadas is carried out in accordance with long-term plans for the formation of hromadas territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, region", as well as Article 11.3, according to which "the long-term plan for the formation of hromadas territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, region shall be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on the proposal of the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the relevant regional state administration."
The subject of the right to a constitutional petition claims that the norms of the disputed Law do not comply with a number of provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine. Substantiating the petition, the People's Deputies of Ukraine, in particular, believe that the strict implementation of the long-term plans for the formation of hromadas territories proposed by the executive branch is currently being declared. Such an unalterable and uncompromising approach not only eliminates the notion of voluntariness, but also violates the provisions of Articles 7 and 140 of the Constitution of Ukraine, and also contradicts the notion of local self-government as a constitutional and legal institute.
In addition, according to the subject of the constitutional petition, contrary to Article 22.3 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the disputed provisions of the Law introduced such an institute of amalgamation of territorial hromadas, which contradicts the ideology of voluntary amalgamation of territorial hromadas and leads to narrowing the constitutional right of hromada members to such voluntary amalgamation.
The constitutional petition also states that the disputed provisions of the Law violate the procedure for execution of local self-government by territorial hromadas established by the Constitution of Ukraine, as well as the foundations of the rule of law.
At the plenary session, the Judge-Rapporteur informed about the inquiries sent to public authorities, higher education institutions, scientific institutions, members of the CCU Research Advisory Council in order to clarify their positions on issues raised in the constitutional petition, and noted that most of the responses had been received and attached to the case file.
Having examined the case file at the public part of the plenary session, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine proceeded to the in-camera part for a decision.
The public part of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at the link: http://sv1.ccu.gov.ua/video_ccu/ksu_11_03_2021_2.mp4.
