E-Participation in the Territorial Communities of Ukraine in the Time of European Integration Processes: Electronic Petitions

The article examines the processes of implementation and effectiveness of electronic petitions in the context of public participation in Ukraine in recent years. The issue of introducing democratic innovations and e-participation in communities is considered, on the one hand, inextricably linked to the ongoing processes of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, and, on the other hand, taking into account the challenges and limitations caused by the Russian full-scale war and the introduction of martial law in Ukraine. Electronic petitions are identified as an effective additional mechanism that can serve as a “public voice” at critical moments in the implementation of democratic reforms, recovery and reconstruction processes. Today in Ukraine, petitions are more common at the national level than at the local level. To analyze the state of use of the tool, we collected data from open sources, namely the EDEM digital platform (15 communities), local government websites (7 communities), and an earlier analytical study by the NGO “Chesno Movement”. The study focuses on the key factors that can affect the effectiveness of local governments in directly generating quality policies and implementing such participatory forms on the ground. These factors include security criteria; legislative conflicts caused by the introduction of martial law; physical and psychological exhaustion of employees, which affects the efficiency of service delivery and information; and technical problems. The conclusions note that in the process of effective use of electronic petitions, the key issue is the clear regulation of the procedure for applying the tool in the community charter, as well as the institutional capacity of the local self-government body to ensure a communication campaign on the availability of such a tool and further consideration of the received petitions in accordance with the procedure set out in the charter. Recommendations are made to improve the effectiveness of implementation of participation tools and involvement of citizens in these processes at the local level in general and in the case of electronic petitions in particular.