Commission for delimitation of powers

On May 30, the commission on delimitation of competencies and powers between the three levels of authority in Russia - federal, regional and municipal - met in the Kremlin under the presidency of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Commenting upon the results of the meeting, the President of Tatarstan said that he does not completely share some of its approaches but admits that the commission is very strong by its structure and intellectual level. Even within the framework of the Russian Constitution, the center is going to reserve part of shared powers. It is done by delicate methods, attempting to observe the constitutional norms, but these arguments, according to M.Shaimiev, are not always well-founded and this process causes anxiety. However, President Putin noted that they did not aim at an artificial increase in the volume of powers of the center by means of reducing those of the regions and local self-government.

The law on local self-government has not functioned properly. About 20,000 institutions of local government were created in Russia, only 200 of them being self-sufficient. At the existing financial maintenance these institutions can not function normally. Therefore they should have their budgets. Now it is time to decide these issues. In the revised version of the Tatarstan Constitution we defined: there will be the local self-government. M.Shaimiev believes that Russia will receive a considerably amended law on local self-government. He thinks that market should govern laws on shared powers, whereas it is not necessary to specify the functions of regional authorities.