Organization of administrative supervision of local government bodies in European countries

Abstract

The article aims to theoretically substantiate and generalize the principles of supervision in European countries in order to understand the prospects for the development of administrative supervision of local self-government in Ukraine. The scientific novelty of the article lies in referring to the normative sources that regulate the relevant issues in European countries, and forming conclusions based on them about the optimal model of administrative supervision. The principle of autonomy of local government underlies the organization of administrative supervision over the activities of local self-government bodies in European countries. In this regard, there is the problem of the existence of such means of ensuring the rule of law, which would not violate the limits of autonomy of local governments. In many states, it is at the constitutional level that the basic principles of administrative supervision are defined. It is concluded that the consolidation of the basics of administrative supervision at the level of the basic law, which is amended by a complicated procedure, provides local governments with more guarantees and greater certainty about the application of this principle in local governments. The approach adopted by most European countries to distinguish between their own and delegated powers of local authorities and empowering supervisory authorities to verify the legality of the use of the former, and expediency only in relation to delegated powers, is appropriate. In the event of a violation of the law, officials supervising the administration must intervene. However, as a rule, they should not be empowered to overturn decisions taken by local governments: they can only be overturned by the courts. A posteriori supervision is more acceptable in terms of time of supervision. Instead, a priori supervision, for which the decision requires approval from a state body, should be exceptional.