Second Phase of Political Reform Consultations begins

The second phase of public consultations on political reform in Ukraine under a project called “Public Consultations and Awareness Campaign on Political Reform in Ukraine” is underway. The project is being carried out by the Center for Ukrainian Reform Education (CURE) and ICPS, with the support of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), Great Britain.

ICPS Director for Political Analysis and Security Programs Viktor Chumak visited Chernivtsi and Lutsk for the project on 21 and 22 June. Over the two days, participants discussed issues related to the structure of Ukraine’s system of local administrations, their drawbacks, the problems they are facing, the main causes and sources of these problems, and possible steps to reform.

So far, public consultations were held in five Ukrainian cities during the first quarter of 2007: Dnipropetrovsk, Lutsk, Mykolayiv, Simferopol, and Chernivtsi. In addition, two brochures were published recently: “Political Reform from the Public Viewpoint,” and “Political Reform from the Government Viewpoint.”

The project involves using the mechanism of public consultations so that different stakeholders can discuss political reform at both the national and local levels. The project goal is to increase the role of public consultations in the policy-making process and to inform the public, including policy-makers, of the many aspects of political reform and opportunities to implement it in an open manner that considers voter opinion.