The article highlights undergoing municipal and administrative reforms as well as reveals the current state of local self-government in the Baltic countries. The paper uncovers its problems, showcases the development process of local self-government, its legal regulation, system’s current active state etc. Key challenges, which were faced by Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian local governments during the reform process, are almost identical with those that exist in Ukraine today, stating a strong argument for the implementation of the Baltic experience towards the creation of effective and sustainable, as well as a national oriented local self-government in Ukraine. The local self-government improvement process, undergoing in Ukraine, should be based
on democratic principles stated in the European charter of local self-government. Thus, the improvement of local self-government system plays a key role in the conduction of the public administration reform in general, which provides the main task of municipal reform – eliminating contradictions and shortcomings that significantly affect the implementation of democratic local self-government. A set of recommendations and directions is produced as an outcome of this paper. A list of specific Ukrainian challenges is also being taken into consideration, such as: overwhelming level of corruption and bureaucratization present in all areas of state regulation, as well as an extremely underdeveloped civil society. This, in turn, is what distinguishes our system of local self-government from others, adding new challenges. Thus, a decent level of governmental and civic cooperation and initiative is crucial for further development and improvement of local self-government in Ukraine.

Keywords: local government reform in Ukraine, municipal reform, local government, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia