The reform, Mazniku: Small municipalities could not provide more than half of their functions

Arbjan Mazniku, a Socialist Party MP and co-chair of the Commission for Territorial Reform, said on Tuesday on Alba Alishani’s “Trialog” programme on RTSH24 that a large share of municipalities, especially the small ones, cannot provide more than half of the services the law assigns to them.

According to him, the territorial element is a precondition for any further discussion on decentralisation and on increasing competences.

“A large part of the discussion of the possibility of carrying out an administrative reform – that is, of saying whether municipalities can take on more competences – is linked to the possibility municipalities have of absorbing these competences,” Mazniku said.

He cited as an example the Municipality of Libohova, which collects only 72,000 euros a year from its own taxes and fees.

“We can change the law all day and all night to say that we will give it more competences; it cannot do it, because it has neither the people, nor the finances, nor the possibility. Which means the territorial element… By making Libohova together with Gjirokastra, within a larger municipality, then we can start to discuss whether we can give it more competences.”

Moderator Alba Alishani noted that the previous reform was not accompanied by financial autonomy and municipalities remained dependent on the centre. Mazniku agreed, saying: “Exactly, and the territorial element is a precondition for discussing afterwards.”

Answering panellist Lorenc Vangjeli’s question about the concrete needs that pushed this reform beyond the electoral promise, Mazniku explained: “The reason it was an electoral promise is that we have understood that a large share of municipalities, especially the small municipalities, cannot manage to perform effectively in providing the services the law assigns to them. Albanian law says that a municipality must perform 42 functions… What we have seen is that half of the municipalities – and here we are mainly dealing with the small municipalities – cannot manage to perform more than half of the functions the law gives them.”