Ukraine/ 5.1 General legislation  

5.1.2 Division of jurisdiction

The basic laws establishing the division of cultural competence between different levels of government in Ukraine are the Law on Local Self-Governance (1997), and the Budget Code of Ukraine (2002).

Article 140 of the Constitution defines local self-governments as territorial communities of cities / towns, villages and settlements. According to Article 143, territorial communities are empowered to approve programmes of socioeconomic and cultural development and supervise their implementation.

The Law on Local Self-Governance determines the responsibilities of local authorities in the sphere of culture including:

• administration of cultural institutions belonging to territorial communities;
• creation of conditions for the development of culture;
• providing the regeneration of centres of traditional skills and cultural traditions; and
• support to creative associations and non-profit cultural organisations.

The Budget Code determines cultural responsibilities and financial obligations to provide public services.

Table 9 shows the distribution of competencies and responsibilities between the different levels of government.

Table 9:     Allocation of government responsibilities in Ukraine, 2002-2012

Source:     Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Budget Committee, 2012.

In 2005, President Verkhovna Rada approved the Law on Amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine, which determines the financing of cultural institutions and programmes from the municipal (rayon) budget including: state cultural-educational and theatre programmes (theatres, libraries, museums, exhibitions, palaces and houses of culture, art schools); village, settlement and town palaces of culture, clubs and libraries. In other words, towns and villages of a municipality can direct their culture expenditures (if they can) to their own development.

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