Administrative-Territorial Reform Review, Bejko: Two thirds of municipalities were divided according to the electoral interest of Edi Rama

In a statement to the media, Bejko said that Although Administrative-Territorial Reform was necessary, it did not fully reflect the principles of the European Charter of Local Autonomy.

According to him, this reform in its infancy aimed at deepening decentralization, but time has shown that it deepened centralization even more, increasing the dependence and control of local government by the central government.

He stressed that the reform also aimed at subsidiarity, but further removed the citizen from power and decision-making.

“It aimed at local self-government. But mayors, on the one hand, have more responsibilities, but on the other hand, they have fewer competencies. (For delegated services, ministries decide) Aimed at fiscal decentralization. But the new legislation (specifically the Law on Local Finance and the Law on Local Self-Government) has not been harmonized with other ongoing laws. The new legislation did not increase the municipal budget, which was the essence of decentralization. The level is more or less the same as before the territorial-administrative reform, so from the central budget is allocated not less than 1% of GDP which is the lowest regional level “, stressed Bejko.

For him, the reform initially aimed at the symmetry of the division of the territory, but produced nothing but demographic, economic asymmetry with the boundaries of municipalities. Creating, according to him, amalgamation in the north and fragmentation in the south. He emphasizes that almost two thirds of the municipalities are divided according to the electoral and political interests of Prime Minister Rama and his party.

“The constitutional obligations and the criterion of the minimum population, the geo-cultural criterion, the historical administrative traditions of the areas, etc. were violated. Aimed at local democracy, transparency, referendums, etc. But it has obstructed local referendums by law. This is a violation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government“, Declared Bejko.

For him, the amalgamation of municipalities would lead to cost reductions, reducing the number of employees, but where action, brought their number to almost 60 thousand, from 22 thousand in 2015. He shares the belief that the high number of employees burdens the budget of municipalities, while emphasizing that almost 65-70% of the grant goes for salaries and expenses and only about 30% for investments. He says the reform increased costs for citizens, but not the quality of services.

“With large municipalities it aimed at economic development, agriculture, equality and quality in the provision of services in the city, up to the deepest areas of its territory. But, in fact, the local government has focused all its attention mainly on city centers. Due to the merging of Municipalities and Communes into a single municipality, residents of rural areas have been abandoned and do not receive any services, bringing consequences in their lives even though residents of rural areas pay the same local taxes and fees.“, He showed.

Bejko thinks that due to these wrong policies, the abandonment of the village has been encouraged, but also of the former urban suburbs with bankrupt industries.

We recall that at the request of seven deputies of the Parliamentary Group of the Democratic Party, the Albanian Parliament approved in the last plenary session of February 10, 2022, the establishment of the Special Commission for Administrative-Territorial Reform with a six-month mandate of its activity the review of the Administrative-Territorial Reform approved in 2014 unilaterally by the PS-SMI coalition.

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