Intermunicipal Cooperation and Development of Communities in the Post-War Period

The article is devoted to the problems of inter-municipal cooperation, practical foreign experience of administrative-territorial reform. The experience of European countries shows that local self-government bodies are endowed with broad powers in the field of spatial development. The aspect of the delegation of powers of European countries, the peculiarities of the functioning of the municipalities of France, the Netherlands, and the communes of Spain are considered. Attention is paid to the statistics of concluded agreements between communities from 2016 to 2023, the issue of concluding cooperation agreements is highlighted. The author examines the financial capacity of communities in the economic crisis, taking into account the changes to the Budget Code of Ukraine regarding the creation of the Rural Development Fund. Advantages for communities that participate in cooperation due to pooling of resources and delegation of authority are analyzed. The main risks that stand in the way of fruitful cooperation are identified: the insufficient level of competence of the heads of territorial communities; low legal education of representatives of local self-government bodies, which in turn is an obstacle when choosing a form of cooperation and legal drafting of agreements; budget conflicts of communities, which thereby create unreliable conditions for more capable communities when pooling resources with less capable communities. An assessment of the potential of community cooperation, indicators related to security issues, and an increase in the population share due to the influx of temporarily displaced persons during the war period was provided. Based on the best domestic and foreign practices, recommendations for communities were formed, which will be useful for further inter-municipal cooperation.