Some aspects of the implementation of economic and legal competence of local self-government bodies to implement innovations
Authors: Davydiuk O. 
Published: September 2020

Problem setting. Since 2002, after the entry into force of such a legal act as the Law of Ukraine “On Innovation”, within the national legislation of Ukraine was regulated for the first time the legal status of such an object of economic and civil turnover as innovation. The provisions of this normative document were quite revolutionary in terms of the powers of local self-government bodies, which were defined as full-fledged subjects of innovation relations. Despite the fact that the legal regulation of innovation implementation processes exists and improves in our country over the past 18 years, there are still a large number of gaps in regulatory impact, which negatively affect the practical implementation of local (regional) innovation projects.

Analysis of recent researches and publications in the work were investigated the works of scientists such as Bielinska, Y. V.; Nezhyborets, V. І.; Orliuk О. P., Butnik-Siverskyi О. B., Myronenko N. М., Petryshyna О. М., etc.

Article’s main body. in accordance with the provisions of Part 3 of Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On Innovation”, representative bodies of local self-government – village, settlement, city councils in accordance with their competence eliminate only 6 forms of participation in innovation relations. However, as the 18-year experience of legal regulation of the process of application of this norm shows, only a few territorial communities are able to organize the full implementation of a comprehensive program of innovative development of their region. At the same time, the main vector of further expansion of the rights of local governments in the field of innovation has already been determined by the provisions of current legislation of Ukraine. Thus, ratifying the Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, on the other hand, the State of Ukraine by Law of № 1678-VII of 16.09.2014, recognized the right to innovation and regional development on their basis is an inalienable right of the territorial community and recognized that such development should take place according to the rules established by the EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation “Horizon 2020”. In our opinion, the forms of participation in innovation activities for local governments provided by EU legislation will allow them to significantly increase the level of socio-economic development of the region and therefore should be reflected in current legislation of Ukraine through the implementation of foreign experience in legal regulation.

Conclusions and prospects for development. The current legislation of Ukraine for local governments provides only an exclusive list of forms of participation of such bodies in the innovation process. The analysis of EU legislation allows to determine the role of local governments in innovation processes, as an institution that should provide infrastructure / assistance to other participants through a system of established institutions in which all necessary prerequisites for production and technical support of innovation and close interaction (contact) with the participants of these relations. It is considered expedient to amend Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On Innovation Activity” by expanding the list of powers of local self-government bodies in innovation processes. The main directions of expansion of such innovations should be: (a) introduction of new forms of participation of local governments in innovation activities which will be characterized by a higher degree of individuality and selectivity to stimulate the development of those types of innovation activities that meet the needs of a particular region. (b) Granting local governments the right to act as an investor / customer of innovations by concluding agreements with specific economic entities engaged in scientific, research or innovation activities. (c) Imposing an obligation on local governments to control the use of property or resources transferred under the terms of the concluded agreements. (d) Establishing the possibility of financing the developers of innovations only in the case of transfer of property rights (part of property rights) to the objects of intellectual property rights that will be created (may be created) as a result of such financing or security. (e) Obligation of local governments to implement the received innovations through the existing system of utilities, institutions, institutions in the life support system of the region