Off the wire
• Juncker appoints special adviser on European defense, security policy  • FLASH: MULTIPLE EXPLOSIONS, GUN SHOTS HIT OPPOSITION RALLY IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA  • Pakistani army chief in Kabul for security talks: military  • 2nd LD Writethru: Myanmar declares state of emergency in Kokang region  • Cypriot police investigate possible arson of Bank of Cyprus CEO's car  • Sierra Leone to lose 920 million USD in 2015 due to Ebola disease  • China, Ghana sign agreement on mutual visa exemptions  • German investors' confidence hits one-year high  • Interview: Spain faces a "fractured" 2015 in which pacts will dominate: Anasagasti  • 1st LD: Multiple blasts rock commercial town of Nigeria's Borno State: security sources  
You are here: 　 Home

Ukraine pledges decentralization reform by October

Xinhua, February 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Groysman said Tuesday that by October his country will implement a comprehensive constitutional reform that will end centralized control of local governments.

"We will offer a decentralization model, which will satisfy all regions of Ukraine, including Donetsk and Lugansk regions," the parliamentary press service quoted Groysman as saying during a meeting with Kristyna Zelienkova, an official with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Local elections will be held in all Ukrainian regions for the reform, Groysman told the rapporteur of the PACE's Political Affairs Committee, without giving further details on the decentralization plan.

Under Ukraine's current constitution, only the president has the power to appoint and dismiss local governors and some other regional officials.

Decentralization of power has been one of the key demands voiced by protesters in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, who are seeking independence from Kiev. Endi