The President of Ukraine and the Government of Ukraine recognized that forming of a new model of the State’s administrative territorial structure, in particular, the sub-regional (district) level, as a component of the structural reforms for power decentralization based on the principles of unity and integrity of the State’s territory, and also combined application of centralization and decentralization in the implementation of state power, as well as maintenance of the appropriate balance of socio-economic development of territories are the major issues of the State’s modern development. Hence the need arises for working on a unified, or at least a generalized, approach to issues of defining the principles and criteria of the administrative territorial structure and preparing a new scheme of districts.

The purpose of the article is to analyze current legislation, existing draft bills and practical aspects connected with the modeling of district consolidation, and to outline separate proposals aimed at improving the administrative territorial structure of the State.

It is noted that today national legislation does not fully ensure appropriate regulation of the procedure according to which districts are formed and liquidated and their borders are established and changed. Thus, according to cl. 29, part 1 of Art. 85 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is empowered to form, liquidate districts, establish and change the borders of districts and cities; however, there is no up-to-date mechanism to implement this provision. Issues relating to the administrative territorial structure are still regulated by Decree of the Presidium of the Ukrainian SSR’s Verkhovna Rada dated March 12, 1981. As a consequence, our State still has complex territorial entities (so-called “nest-dolls”), where within one territory there are separate administrative territorial units and several local councils. For example, in Kharkiv oblast, as a part of Kupiansk town which is a town of oblast status, there are Kupiansk town council and Kupiansk-Vuzlovska settlement council, and as a part of Lozova town – a town of oblast status – Lozova town council, Paniutynka settlement council and Domaska village council, and this gives rise to a number of difficulties, in particular, with the exercise of their powers; and furthermore, there are de facto administrative territorial units, the so-called “urban-type settlements”, which are not provided for in the Constitution of Ukraine. Besides, till now the criteria for forming of administrative territorial units etc. have not been defined at the legislative level.

The author comes to the conclusion that there is the need for appropriate constitutional and legislative regulation of the administrative territorial structure of Ukraine, and also outlines innovations in the modeling of the schematic map of new consolidated districts on the example of Kharkiv oblast, and provides justification of the need for taking into account a number of criteria to achieve an appropriate balance of socio-economic development of new administrative territorial entities and to ensure the availability of services for residents and etc.