Lawmaking on New Foundations: How the Laws ‘On Lawmaking’ and ‘On Public Consultations’ Will Change the Quality of Governance in Ukraine

The peculiarities of legal regulation of lawmaking in Ukraine lie in the existence of a ramified but insufficiently organised system of legal acts (LAs) with varying legal force.

The requirements for the preparation of draft LAs are enshrined in both Ukrainian laws and bylaws. They vary significantly depending on the subject of rulemaking and the level of legal force. The fewest such requirements are established for MPs as holders of the right of legislative initiative, while the Government is obliged to comply with a number of requirements in the preparation of LAs, including draft laws. This leads to the submission Public Administration in Ukraine. Assessment against the Principles of Public Administration. SIGMA. December 2023. P. 38. of draft laws developed by ministries to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine through MPs.

The assessment of the potential impact of draft LAs is fragmented and inconsistent and does not cover all lawmaking entities. Monitoring of the implementation of LAs is largely limited to the Government’s oversight of the preparation of acts of lower legal force (if necessary).

The exception is regulatory acts, for which the law establishes The Law of Ukraine ‘On the Principles of State Regulatory Policy’ outlines the requirements for preparing draft regulatory acts, which cover planning the preparation of draft regulatory acts, preparing a regulatory impact analysis, publishing the draft act for discussion, mandatory approval by the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine, and basic and repeated monitoring of the performance of the act. legal and organisational requirements for their preparation, which are implemented only by the ministries that prepare such acts and, accordingly, by the Government as the holder of the right of legislative initiative. At the same time, such requirements are not adapted for MPs, as they do not contain a mechanism for implementation. 

Ukrainian legislation contains minimum requirements for public participation in the process of making decisions that are important to society. Moreover, most of these requirements relate to draft laws prepared by ministries. To a large extent, the current procedures remain formal, as the Procedure for Public Consultations on the Formulation and Implementation of State Policy (Procedure No. 966) does not provide for mandatory consultations on all LAs developed by executive authorities and narrows the scope of necessary consultations Public Administration in Ukraine. Assessment against the Principles of Public Administration. SIGMA. December 2023. pp. 71–74. .

A separate challenge for Ukraine is the scale of legislative work, driven by the reform agenda and the EU accession process. This requires a critical rethinking of the results of implementing the Public Administration Reform Strategy for 2022–2025 (hereinafter referred to as the Strategy), in particular with regard to strengthening the capacity of ministries to develop policy. Currently, ministries are overburdened with policy implementation functions, and their internal organisational structure cannot provide an adequate level of analytical capacity and effective policy development. The incomplete reform of ministries is not only a formal change No time for slow change: lessons from Rome for public governance. Ugis Sics, Head of the EU4PAR project. in organisational structures, but also a lack of the necessary skills, motivation and a ‘can-do’ culture.

This has a negative impact on the quality of legislation, its effectiveness, clarity, timeliness and predictability of changes for citizens and businesses.

The SIGMA Programme pointed out systemic shortcomings characteristic of the policy-making and legislative development process in its 2023 Monitoring Report, noting in particular:

• the limited role Public Administration in Ukraine. Assessment against the Principles of Public Administration. SIGMA. December 2023. P. 13. of the Government as an initiator of draft laws (compared to the practice of EU member states), where governments have better opportunities to ensure the quality of draft laws. Therefore, the limitations that exist in Ukraine may pose a challenge in promoting the coordinated political agenda of the Cabinet of Ministers;
• absence of internal LAs and consistent practices for developing draft laws and policies in ministries;
• low quality of Ukraine 2024. Report. European Commission. P. 25. explanatory notes and impact analyses accompanying legislative proposals;
• insufficient effectiveness of expert examination of Public Administration in Ukraine. Assessment against the Principles of Public Administration. SIGMA. December 2023. P. 37. draft laws;
• shortcomings in the verification of the financial justification of draft laws and their consistency with the Government’s priorities.

The Government’s capacity to develop policy is one of the components assessed in the context of Ukraine’s fulfilment of the requirements for European integration. Throughout 2023–2024, the European Commission emphasised in its annual reports on Ukraine’s progress within the Enlargement Package that the Government’s capacity in this area remains unsatisfactory. 

The Strategy focuses on some of the above-mentioned issues in the area of ‘Effective Governance’. The goal of this area is to create conditions in which authorities will formulate state policy based on the results of analysis and communication with stakeholders in line with the OECD/SIGMA Principles of Public Administration (in particular, principles 4 Principle 4: Public policy is developed based on evidence and analysis, with clear and consistent rules for lawmaking; laws and regulations are easily accessible. and 5 Principle 5: Policy development is conducted in active consultation with all key external and internal stakeholders and the public. ). 

The Strategy focuses Block ‘Effective Governance’. on addressing the following issues:

• inefficient system of central executive authorities;
• lack of clear division of functions in policy formulation and implementation;
• unregulated system of state strategic planning.

The need to review the process of public consultations on the formulation and implementation of state policy was also noted.

The main tasks for the implementation of this area of the Strategy for policy formulation and lawmaking are:

• improving the system for developing draft legal acts, in particular through the standardisation of rulemaking procedures and the conduct of expert examination;
• improving the process of public consultations and consultations with the public on the formulation and implementation of state policy.

To this end, the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Strategy for Reforming Public Administration in Ukraine for 2022–2025 proposes the following: 

1. adopt draft law No. 5469, which will assign ministries the function of developing draft legislative acts;
2. create directorates within the structure of ministries, which will be 82% staffed in 2022, 85% in 2023, 88% in 2024 and 90% in 2025;
3. adopt draft law No. 4254 on public consultations;
4. adopt a CMU resolution on updating the process of public consultations.

State of Play and Progress of Reform

An important step towards unifying the processes of developing state policy and drafting LAs was the adoption of the laws of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’ (24 August 2023) and ‘On Public Consultations’ (20 June 2024). 

Lawmaking

The Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’ establishes the status of the Government and ministries as lawmaking entities Subjects of lawmaking activity are state authorities, local self-government bodies, their officials and other entities vested with the powers to adopt (issue) regulatory legal acts by the Constitution of Ukraine and/or law. . Other public authorities whose jurisdiction extends to the entire territory of Ukraine acquire the status of lawmaking entities only if they carry out such activities on behalf of the state based on the law. 

This Law establishes requirements for the lawmaking process, which covers virtually all stages of the preparation of draft legal acts ‘from start to finish’. It is important that the Law traces the cyclical nature of lawmaking activities: it does not end with the adoption of an act but provides for further evaluation of its effectiveness. Based on the results of such an evaluation, a decision may be made to revise the act, initiating a new cycle of lawmaking.

The requirements established by the Law largely correspond to the logic of the public policy cycle. They cover the planning of lawmaking activities, the preparation of analytical, forecast and programmatic documents Section III ‘Planning of Lawmaking’ of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’. in the field of public policy, the expert examination of draft legal acts Article 44 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’. , public Article 45 of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’. consultations and legal monitoring Section XII ‘Legal Monitoring’ of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’. .

The main part of the regulatory provisions of this Law will come into force 12 months after the abolition or termination of martial law in Ukraine.

However, the testing of certain provisions of the Law, in particular those concerning amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, has already begun: the structure and content of the Verkhovna Rada’s legislative work plans for 2024 and 2025 correspond to the structure and content specified in the version of the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine that has not yet been enacted. At the same time, the Government has already improved its position as a holder of the right of legislative initiative. 

Public consultations

The Law of Ukraine ‘On Public Consultations’ establishes rules for involving stakeholders in decision-making through public consultations at all stages of problem statement, development, formulation and implementation of state policy. This Law is intended to Public Administration in Ukraine. Assessment against the Principles of Public Administration. SIGMA. December 2023. pp. 71–74. resolve the issue of selective application of the public consultation tool during the preparation of draft LAs, as insisted upon by SIGMA Programme experts. The Law provides for mandatory e-consultations on all draft acts, while other forms of consultation (targeted consultations and public discussions) are optional and may be conducted in addition to e-consultations. 

This law will come into force 12 months after the abolition or termination of martial law in Ukraine. 

Together, these laws establish rules that are not only the result of the implementation of public administration reform, particularly in terms of improving rulemaking processes and consultations with the public, but also act as a catalyst for deeper transformations in the system of central executive authorities. They set out specific requirements to strengthen the capacity of the Government, central executive authorities and the state apparatus as a whole so that these laws can be effectively implemented by the time they come into force. 

Currently, the impact of these laws, adopted ‘for the future’, on the activities of central executive authorities is potential. At the same time, their implementation requires an internal restructuring of these authorities, a review of approaches to the organisation of their work and the development of the capacity to operate under the new rules.

Problems in implementing the reform

The Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’ reinforces the model of the organisational structure of central executive authorities proposed in government draft law No. 5469. This draft law was aimed at improving the efficiency of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and strengthening the role of ministries in the process of state policy formulation. In particular, it provided for: 

• establishing a unified structure for the ministry’s apparatus, including: a directorate, a ministry secretariat, departments, offices and other independent structural units;
• concentrating the functions of drafting legislative acts in ministries (except in cases where other central executive authorities have rulemaking powers in accordance with the law);
• clarifying the areas of competence and main activities of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, ensuring the improvement of the quality of government decisions and clearly distributing powers among members of the Government in all areas of its activity.

However, in September 2024, draft law No. 5469 was withdrawn by its initiator, which halted further progress of the reform in this area. As a result, the laws of Ukraine ‘On the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine’ and ‘On Central Bodies of Executive Power’ remain unadapted to the Law ‘On Lawmaking’ and do not provide an adequate regulatory basis for its full implementation.

The implementation of the Strategy’s objectives to complete the reorganisation of ministries and bring their structure into line with established requirements was hampered by russia’s full-scale armed aggression. Under martial law and with limited resources, in particular due to cuts in the wage fund of public authorities, the process of establishing new directorates in ministries was suspended, while a number of ministries reduced the number of staff and actual number of positions for reform specialists, and in some cases, directorates For comparison, at the beginning of 2021, more than 90 directorates were established, as of April 2025, there are 48 of them (in total, they function in only 11 ministries out of 19). White Paper on Reforms 2025. Section 1. Governance. Vox Ukraine Team Reform Research. were liquidated Report on the implementation in 2023 of the Strategy for Public Administration Reform in Ukraine for 2022–2025. pp. 37–38, 58. .

During three years of full-scale war, candidates for civil service positions have mostly been selected through non-transparent direct appointments. In addition, there is a growing trend of staff turnover in all categories of positions and, in general, an outflow of staff from the civil service The ALI covered staffing for the civil service in its article Updating the Civil Service Selection Procedure. . This creates the risk of a significant weakening of the institutional capacity of public authorities, in particular ministries, to engage in high-quality and well-founded lawmaking, including the implementation of the full lawmaking cycle, encompassing analysis, consultation and impact assessment.

On 15 July 2025, the Government submitted to Parliament draft law No. 13478 aimed at developing the civil service, which, inter alia, provides for: 

1. resumption of competitions for civil service positions (with the exception of appointments to civil service positions in areas where hostilities are taking place);
2. introduction of new modern personnel management tools in the civil service aimed at making effective management decisions (in particular, personnel and candidate reserves, civil servant induction and internal competitions);
3. introduction of mechanisms for the career advancement of civil servants through transfer to higher civil service positions within the same category of positions within one year after receiving an excellent rating based on the results of the annual assessment.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is also considering an alternative draft law No. 13478-1 of 16 July 2025, prepared by MPs, which clarifies certain provisions of the Government’s draft law regarding the experience of members of the Commission on Senior Civil Service and the reduction of the time frame for announcing competitions for various categories of civil service positions. 

The initiative of the MPs is explained by the need to speed up the preparation of legislation necessary to implement the indicators of Ukraine’s Reform Plan 2 ‘Procedure for Selection to the Civil Service’, one of which is due to be completed in the third quarter of 2025 Explanatory note to draft law No. 13478-1. .

On 17 July 2025, in connection with the resignation of the Government, draft law No. 13478 was withdrawn by the newly formed Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. There are now two possible scenarios: the newly formed Government will resubmit the Government’s draft law, thereby demonstrating its agency in shaping state policy, or Parliament will consider an alternative draft law initiated by MPs. 

In any case, the adoption of a law that regulates the restoration of competitive selection and the introduction of modern personnel management tools is necessary not only to achieve a formal indicator. Such a law will be an important impetus for attracting skilled professionals to the civil service, which, in turn, will contribute to improving the quality of analysis, formulation and implementation of state policy.

The adopted laws of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’ and ‘On Public Consultations’ are undoubtedly valuable for systematising the process of developing draft legal acts and demonstrate progress in reforming the policy-making process. However, in some provisions, these laws give the impression of having been adopted in haste, which may complicate their implementation in the future. In particular, this concerns:

1. internal inconsistency of the provisions of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’ with the rulemaking procedures established by it, in particular regarding the presentation of normative provisions in chronological order of the development of processes within the relevant social relations;
2. uncertainty of the role, place and number of analytical public policy documents within the lawmaking process, which reduces the quality For example, impact assessment in the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’ is mentioned as an analytical paper on public policy without explaining where and how it falls to be applied, except in the white paper, and as an assessment of the impact of normative legal acts carried out by the entity with the right of legislative initiative and set out in an explanatory note. The requirements for the content of an impact assessment as an analytical paper and an impact assessment of a normative legal act are different. That is, an impact assessment as an analytical paper can only partially cover the needs of the lawmaking entity for information to prepare an impact assessment of a normative legal act in an explanatory note. of the justification of draft LAs;
3. preservation of the practice of preparing accompanying documents for draft LAs that duplicate each other (for example, analogues of ex-ante analysis — explanatory note with an assessment of the impact of LAs, analysis of the regulatory impact of LAs);
4. lack of a clear concept of ex-post analysis of LAs — assessment of the impact of already adopted LAs on society and the economy after a certain initial phase of their operation, which examines whether the desired results of the act have been achieved, whether it is effective and whether it needs to be changed;
5. uncertainty of legal monitoring mechanisms for acts adopted prior to the entry into force of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’;
6. inconsistent terminology in the Ukrainian laws ‘On Lawmaking’ and ‘On Public Consultations,’ particularly regarding the scope of persons affected by LAs;
7. limited coverage of the requirements of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Public Consultations’, which currently do not apply to MPs, reducing the consistency of their legislative initiatives with the interests of stakeholders and potentially creating problems for the Government in ensuring the implementation of laws;
8. the absence in the Law of Ukraine ‘On Public Consultations’ of clear definitions of ‘interested party’ and ‘key interest of an interested party’, which hinders a qualitative analysis of the impact of LAs. Due to the absence of such definitions, impact assessments are often formal, and the entities that are actually affected by new regulations (civil servants, physicians, teachers, military personnel and others) are either not taken into account or are generalised as ‘the state’ or ‘citizens’.

The Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’ bypassed the issue of government expert examination of laws adopted by the Verkhovna Rada and submitted to the President of Ukraine for signature. Currently, such expert examination is regulated only by the Rules of Procedure of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and the Government must meet the deadline set by the Constitution of Ukraine for the President to sign the law or apply a veto of 15 calendar days.

The deadline given to the Government (and actually to several ministries and the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine) depends on when the President decides to send the law to the Government for expert examination. Usually, the Government has only one to three days to prepare reasoned comments and proposals. Therefore, despite the obvious expediency and usefulness of government expert examination, it is often conducted in a ‘shock’ mode, which can negatively affect the depth of analysis and the quality of the proposals provided.

Recommendations

Completing these reforms is not only a requirement of international partners or a formal obligation, but also the key to effective, transparent and professional public administration in conditions of martial law and post-war recovery.

The reform of the civil service and the lawmaking process in Ukraine remains structurally sound but incomplete. Therefore, the following measures should be taken to successfully implement comprehensive public administration reform:

Adaptation of the laws of Ukraine ‘On the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine’ and ‘On Central Bodies of Executive Power’ to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’, in particular, the preparation and adoption of laws that will ensure the effective implementation of reforms, in particular, regarding:

1. strengthening the role of the Government as a holder of the right of legislative initiative in shaping the Parliament’s agenda;
2. delineating the functions of formulating and implementing state policy between ministries and other central executive authorities, with ministries being assigned the functions of ensuring the formulation of state policy and other central executive authorities being assigned the functions of implementing state policy;
3. distributing all areas of the Government’s competence among members of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, i.e., among ministries that will be responsible for ensuring the formulation of state policy in their respective areas;
4. streamlining the structure of ministries to ensure the deepening of the analytical part of their work, improving the quality of state policy development and monitoring its effectiveness and adjusting it (if necessary);
5. introducing modern personnel management tools in the civil service.

The laws of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’ and ‘On Public Consultations’ have the potential for a multiplier effect — they influence (or should influence) the development of an effective model of the system of central executive authorities capable of ensuring their practical implementation. This is one of the reasons for their further refinement so that, once they come into force, they can have a full positive impact on the processes of analysis, formulation and monitoring of state policy. In particular, regulatory provisions need to be clarified regarding:

• the stages of the lawmaking process and the actual work processes that take place at each stage in the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’;
• the role, place and number of analytical public policy documents in the lawmaking process;
• optimising the number of accompanying documents to the draft LA that provide for an assessment of its potential impact. For example, it would be logical to combine in a single impact assessment of the LAs all aspects that potentially affect social relations, including regulatory impact. After all, when assessing the impact of an act on business entities, we must understand that such an impact has a multiplier effect on society, which can be expressed in an increase or decrease in prices for certain goods and services as a result of changes in the operating conditions of business entities (SMEs);
• introducing a full-fledged ex-post analysis of LAs;
• defining the specifics of legal monitoring of LAs adopted prior to the entry into force of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’ and therefore not prepared under the rules of this Law (including for this Law);
• establishing clear grounds and deadlines for the President to refer a law for government expert examination at the level of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’ would give the Cabinet of Ministers more time to prepare a balanced and reasoned position on laws adopted by the Parliament. In the future, after the abolition or termination of martial law, it is worth considering making relevant amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine, as well as setting a more realistic deadline for the President to decide on a law submitted to him for signature;
• harmonisation of the terminology used in the laws of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’ and ‘On Public Consultations’, which use different concepts when defining the circle of persons who will be affected by the adoption (issuance) of a certain LA, as well as clarifying the meaning of the terms ‘interested persons’ and ‘interested parties’ with due regard to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lobbying’. In particular, in the Law of Ukraine ‘On Lawmaking’, the term ‘interested persons’ should be differentiated according to the categories of participants in lawmaking, in particular those who influence the adoption of LAs (lobbyists) and those who are affected by legal acts (interested parties);
• extending the full scope of the requirements of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Public Consultations’ to MPs as holders of lawmaking initiatives;
• introducing the concepts of ‘interested party’ and ‘key interest of an interested party’ into the Law of Ukraine ‘On Public Consultations’. This is important because interested parties (e.g. civil servants, physicians, teachers, military personnel and others) may be interested in regulation or oppose it and be veto players due to the impact of LAs on their key interests.

This publication has been prepared within the framework of the ‘Improvement of Governance in Ukraine: Enhancing Policy Making for Social Progress’ Project with the support of Switzerland. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the NGO ‘Agency for Legislative Initiatives’. The opinion of the authors does not necessarily reflect the views of the donor.