February 7, 2011 the draft Law of Ukraine "On Local Referendum" was discussed at the roundtable organized by the Committee of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on state development and local self-government in collaboration with the Council of Europe’s Programme "Strengthening Local Democracy and Support for Local Government Reforms in Ukraine", Election Law Institute and other partner organizations.

Drafting of the Law "On Local Referendum" is due to the necessity of legislative regulation of the direct participation of citizens in solving local problems – in particular, by conducting a referendum and eliminating the discrepancy between the Law of Ukraine "On All-Ukrainian and Local Referenda" and the Constitution of Ukraine, which adversely affects the law enforcement process.

The participants reviewed the draft Law as well as highlighted the experience of Ukraine and other European countries related to the conduction of local referenda and the improvement of electoral legislation.

The experience of the Swiss Confederation was presented by Ms Nicole Toppervin, an expert to the Decentralisation Support Project in Ukraine (DESPRO). Switzerland has the greatest experience of using referenda - the first referendum was held there in 1439. It is one of the few countries where a referendum is the real mechanism of public influence on policy development. "There is no doubt that the historical and political contexts of Ukraine and Switzerland are very different. But certain practices might be useful for local referendum," the expert mentioned. Ms Nicole Toppervin presented her expert opinion on how to improve the Draft Law, which will be included in the overall conclusion of the Council of Europe.

Mr. Gérard Marcou, Professor at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, shared the French experience of holding referenda. Based on the considerable experience of the European countries in holding referenda, the international experts have identified weaknesses in the Draft Law and outlined the ways to improve it. The Expert analysis of the Council of Europe will become the basis for ‘smoothing’ the legislative framework for local referendums.

According to the participants of the round table, adoption of the Law of Ukraine "On Local Referendum" and its further implementation will contribute to the increase of social activity of every resident, to the involvement of population to self-governing process, and hence – to the formation  of a full-fledged local government in the administrative-territorial units of Ukraine.

The event was attended by People’s Deputies of Ukraine, representatives of central and local executive bodies, local authorities and their associations, representatives of international donor organizations, academia, Ukrainian and international experts who deal with the improvement of the electoral law. The Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralisation Support in Ukraine Project DESPRO was represented by Mr Juerg Christen, Project Director, Ms Nicole Toppervin, Project Expert, Ms Oksana Garnets, Senior Project Coordinator in Ukraine.