On May 26, 2023, the round table “Local democracy: the role of communities and local self-government bodies” was held at Sumy State University. The event was organized as part of the implementation of the educational project ERASMUS-JMO-2021-HEI-TCH-RSCH -101047645 – “EULOCDEM: Local democracy: best European practices for Ukraine” within the direction of the Jean Monnet Module of the Erasmus+ program.
The purpose of the round table was to familiarize with the experience of the EU countries regarding the use of tools of local democracy and its implementation in Ukraine.
Speakers of the event were:
Tetyana Mykhaylina, doctor of legal sciences, professor, professor of the Department of Theory, History of State and Law and Philosophy of Law of the Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University with a report “Tools of local democracy in the context of civil society development”.
Iryna Maisun is a student-intern at Prior McAlister Solicitors LLP (Ireland), who dedicated her report to the legal status of the ombudsman of Irish local authorities, in particular, the experience that can be used in Ukraine.
Katrin Nyman Metcalf, professor at the Tallinn School of Law, Tallinn University of Technology, legal expert at the Estonian Academy of e-Government with a report “Experience of implementing e-Government in Estonia”.
Anton Avksentiev, expert of the NGO “Analytical Center “Democracy Observatory”, senior lecturer of the Department of Political Science of Kharkiv National University named after V. N. Karazin, candidate of political sciences, prepared a speech on the topic “Participation in the toponymic policy of communities: the specifics of de-Russification in Kharkiv Region”.
Andrii Mosha, head of the department of analytics and communication strategies of the Public Communications Department of the Sumy City Council, gave a speech on the topic “On the issue of decolonization of the Sumy City Territorial Community.”
The project team expresses great gratitude to the speakers for their informative and interesting reports, to all participants for their interest in the topic of the event and support for the project as a whole.
Based on the results of the round table, a collection of theses of the participants’ reports will be published.