Urban agglomerations as forms of cooperation of communities in the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine

The decentralization reform, which is undoubtedly one of the most successful in Ukraine, contributed to the formation and strengthening of the foundations of the functioning of the municipal government in Ukraine, which in the conditions of a full-scale war demonstrated the ability to counter extraordinary challenges, ensuring the functioning of the economy and the livelihood of the population. Local self- government bodies not only made a significant contribution to strengthening the defense capability of the state, but also provided support to communities that were occupied/de-occupied, provided temporary housing and created favorable conditions for the integration of forcibly displaced persons into the community, guaranteed the timely provision of the entire range of services at the community level, etc. The article is devoted to the search for ways to improve the institution of local self- government in the conditions of war and post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, which will speed up the reconstruction of destroyed settlements, lead to the growth of economic indicators and a significant increase in the level of providing services to the population. The author substantiates the need to revise the legislative regulation of issues of cooperation of territorial communities, in particular by creating urban agglomerations as one of the types of cooperation of territorial communities. The practice of functioning of urban agglomerations in foreign countries and the prospects of creating such agglomerations in Ukraine are analyzed. Attention is focused on the efforts of legislative regulation of the functioning of urban agglomerations, the debatability of the norms of the draft laws, which defined urban agglomerations as a separate component of the administrative-territorial system, contained norms that, having established the principle of mutual benefit, essentially legitimized the attempt of large cities to extend the sphere of their influence to adjacent territories, expand the boundaries of own powers at the expense of the powers and resources of neighboring territorial communities. It is proposed to supplement the Law «On the Cooperation of Territorial Communities»; and some other laws with separate regulations determining the legal status of agglomerations, to provide for the formation of the agglomeration council and to include in its sphere of competence consideration of issues affecting the common interests of territorial communities that are part of the agglomeration, and to provide a list of basic powers, which may vary depending on the amount of institutional capacity of the respective agglomeration.