Hromada

A hromada (Ukrainian: територіальна громада, romanized: terytorialna hromada, lit.'territorial community') is a basic unit of administrative division in Ukraine, similar to a municipality. It was established by the Government of Ukraine on 12 June 2020.[1] Similar terms exist in Poland (gromada) and in Belarus (hramada). The literal translation of this term is "community", similarly to the terms used in western European states, such as Germany (Gemeinde), France (commune), Italy (comune), and Portugal (freguesia).

A hromada is designated urban hromada if its administration is located in a city; settlement hromada if it is located in an urban-type settlement (occasionally called towns), and rural hromada if it is located in a selo or another rural settlement.[2]

List of hromadas

In total, there are 1469 hromadas (as of October 1, 2023), including:

  • 409 urban hromadas (Ukrainian: міська громада),
  • 435 settlement hromadas (Ukrainian: селищна громада),
  • 625 rural hromadas (Ukrainian: сільська громада).
Region Number of hromadas
Hromada type Total
urban settlement rural
 Zakarpattia Oblast 11 18 35 64
 Cherkasy Oblast 16 10 40 66
 Chernivtsi Oblast 11 7 34 52
 Chernihiv Oblast 16 24 17 57
 Donetsk Oblast 43 14 9 66
 Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 20 25 41 86
 Kharkiv Oblast 17 26 13 56
 Kherson Oblast 9 17 23 49
 Khmelnytskyi Oblast 13 22 25 60
 Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast 15 23 24 62
 Kyiv Oblast 24 23 22 69
 Kirovohrad Oblast 12 16 21 49
 Luhansk Oblast 20 12 5 37
 Lviv Oblast 39 16 18 73
 Mykolaiv Oblast 9 14 29 52
 Odesa Oblast 19 25 47 91
 Poltava Oblast 16 20 24 60
 Rivne Oblast 11 13 40 64
 Sumy Oblast 15 15 21 51
 Ternopil Oblast 18 16 21 55
 Vinnytsia Oblast 18 22 23 63
 Volyn Oblast 11 18 25 54
 Zaporizhzhia Oblast 14 17 36 67
 Zhytomyr Oblast 12 22 32 66
 Ukraine 409 435 625 1469

History

Prior to 2020, the basic units of administrative division in Ukraine were rural councils, settlement councils and city councils, which were often referred to by the generic term hromada.

The Constitution of Ukraine and some other laws, including the "Law on local self-governance", delegate certain rights and obligations for hromadas. Types of hromadas include cities, urban-type settlements, rural settlements, and villages. In his draft constitutional amendments of June 2014, President Petro Poroshenko proposed changing the administrative divisions of Ukraine, which he felt should include oblasts, raions and hromadas.[3]

On June 12, 2020, the Government of Ukraine approved the territories and administrative centers of the hromadas, which cover settlements in all regions of Ukraine except for Crimea.[4] A total of 1470 hromadas were approved.

On August 12, 2020, the Sokoliv hromada of the Cherkasy Oblast became a part of the Zhashkiv hromada.[5] Thus, there were 1469 hromadas.

Administrative tasks and objectives

Each hromada carries out two types of task: own and commissioned. Own tasks are public tasks exercised by self-government, which serve to satisfy the needs of the community. The tasks can be twofold:

  • compulsory – where the municipality cannot decline to carry out the tasks, and must set up a budget to carry them out in order to provide the inhabitants with the basic public benefits.
  • optional – where the municipality can carry them out in accordance with available budgetary means, set out only to specific local needs (on the hromada's own responsibility and budget).

Own objectives

Own high objectives include matters such as spatial harmony, real estate management, environmental protection and nature conservation, water management, country roads, public streets, bridges, squares and traffic systems, water supply systems and source, the sewage system, removal of urban waste, water treatment, maintenance of cleanliness and order, sanitary facilities, dumps and council waste, supply of electric and thermal energy and gas, public transport, health care, welfare, care homes, subsidised housing, public education, cultural facilities including public libraries and other cultural institutions, historic monuments conservation and protection, the sports facilities and tourism including recreational grounds and devices, marketplaces and covered markets, green spaces and public parks, communal graveyards, public order and safety, fire and flood protection with equipment maintenance and storage, maintaining objects and devices of the public utility and administrative buildings, pro-family policy including social support for pregnant women, medical and legal care, supporting and popularising the self-government initiatives and cooperation within the commune including with non-governmental organizations, interaction with regional communities from other countries, etc.

Commissioned tasks

Commissioned tasks cover the remaining public tasks resulting from legitimate needs of the state, commissioned by central government for the units of local government to implement. The tasks are handed over on the basis of statutory by-laws, charters and regulations, or by way of agreements between the self-government units and central-government administration.

See also

References

  • The dictionary definition of hromada at Wiktionary
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