Balla: 70% of EU legislation is implemented by local government, municipalities must be ready for 2030

In his speech in Parliament, the Chairman of the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group, Taulant Balla, argued that the Administrative-Territorial Reform is directly linked to Albania’s European Union integration process. According to him, meeting the obligations of membership requires deep structural changes in local government.

“Membership in the European Union requires deep reforms, requires difficult reforms, perhaps even unpopular ones, but they are reforms that must be made at all costs, and at any price,” Balla declared during the parliamentary session.

He noted that around 70% of European Union legislation is implemented precisely at the local level, which requires an immediate increase in the administrative capacities of Albanian municipalities.

“Around 70% of European Union legislation is implemented at the local level, so we must have municipalities ready that in 2030 will be ready to start implementing European legislation at their level,” he underlined.

The challenges of small municipalities with European funds and projects

A significant part of Balla’s argument focused on the inability of small municipalities to absorb EU cohesion policy funds. He gave concrete examples such as Prrenjas and Këlcyra, highlighting the need to merge with larger units in order to create competitive structures.

“Today the municipality of Prrenjas does not have the capacities to make projects that compete in the European regional development fund, neither for infrastructure, nor for urban development, nor for innovation. We must be ready to compete for 514 million euros for which our municipalities must compete. We do not want to lose a single cent,” Balla argued.

To illustrate this, he referred to the experience of other countries in the region during the post-accession period.

“I remember well when Romania and Bulgaria entered the European Union: in the first three years they gave more money than they received, because they did not have entities to prepare projects,” the head of the Socialist group recalled.

Local finances and exchanges with the opposition

Balla responded to the opposition’s criticism of the alleged failure of the 2015 reform, citing the growth of local government spending and revenues over the years.

“In 2015 local spending was only 34 billion lekë; today local spending is three times more. Around 11.7 billion lekë were revenues from local taxes and fees; today they are 40.9 billion lekë, or four times more,” he said.

Mocking the opposition’s proposal to create 100 local units, Balla claimed that the political opponents themselves accept that a return to the old model with 373 communes and municipalities is no longer functional.

“You yourselves did not come with a proposal to go to 373 units, but you came with a proposal of 100 units. According to Luli’s mathematics, this 100 units is much closer to 61 than to 373,” Balla declared.

In closing, Balla underlined that the reform’s main focus remains improving services and financing for citizens, and not the political interests or the chairs of local leaders.

“Citizens do not want a chair for the mayor; citizens want work, and work requires funds, and all of this is done to guarantee more funds for our municipalities,” Balla concluded.