WORKING TOGETHER Intermunicipal Cooperation in Five Central European Countries EDITED BY Paweł Swianiewicz Working Together Intermunicipal Cooperation in Five Central European Countries Edited by Paweł Swianiewicz Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative Open Society Foundations–Budapest Address Október 6 utca 12 H–1051 Budapest, Hungary Mailing address P.O. Box 519 H–1357 Budapest, Hungary Telephone (36-1) 882-3100 Fax (36-1) 882-3105 E-mail [email protected] Web Site http://lgi.osi.hu/ © 2011 Open Society Foundations ISBN 978-963-9719-24-8 Working Together: Intermunicipal Cooperation in Eastern Europe Open Society Institute online The production of this report has been funded by the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative of the Open Society Foundations–Budapest. The judgments expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Open Society Foundations. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Managing Editor: Tom Bass Design & Layout: Judit Kovács l Createch Ltd. LGI POLICY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM LGI’s fellowship program supports practical policy reform in the region, builds the capacities of talented individuals who are well placed to influence policy, creates net- works of multinational experts, and supports the mission of LGI. Each year LGI selects talented professionals from Central, East, and South Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to participate in the one-year program. Fellows work in small teams under the guidance of a well-respected mentor to produce policy-oriented studies on a given topic. The completed studies are impact oriented; each contains an advocacy or implementation strategy and concrete policy recommendations. LGI provides its fellows with training on how to write effective, concise, fact-based, practical policy reports. Other training modules LGI offers its fellows are public speaking, presentation skills and advocacy methods. At the conclusion of the program LGI works with its fellows to determine what steps it can take to support the proposed recommendations in the completed studies. Fellows are generally policy researchers, policy advisers, civil servants and members of NGOs, advocacy groups, or professional associations. • To learn more about the Open Society Institute, see: http://www.soros.org/ • To learn more about the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initia- tive, see: http://lgi.osi.hu/index.php Scott Abrams Deputy Director Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative Open Society Institute Október 6. utca 12 H–1051 Budapest, Hungary Phone: (+36 1) 882 3104 ext. 2268 Fax: (+36 1) 882 3105 iii Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................ v List of Contributors ........................................................................................... vii List of Boxes, Figures, and Tables ...................................................................... xi Demanded but Difficult: Intermunicipal Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe Paweł Swianiewicz .............................................................................................. 1 COUNTRY REPORTS Albania Beyond Administrative Borders: IMC in Albania Dakoli Wilson ........................................................................................... 19 Bosnia and Herzegovina Voluntary Intermunicipal Cooperation in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bridging the Differences Aleksandar Draganic ................................................................................. 99 Czech Republic Voluntary Municipal Associations in the Czech Republic: Unfulfilled Expectations? Lucie Sedmihradská ................................................................................... 165 Macedonia Establishment and Development of Intermunicipal Cooperation in the Republic of Macedonia Tome Sekerdziev ........................................................................................ 211 Romania Fine-tuning Intermunicipal Cooperation Policy in Romania Cristina Stănuş ......................................................................................... 269 v List of Contributors Aleksandar Draganic is a Policy Development Expert employed at the Enterprise Development Agency (EDA) in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He holds an MA in Economics from Staffordshire University and has since provided expertise and support to local government and public administration reform projects, as well as other projects in the areas youth, social exclusion, and economic and socio-economic development. As a consultant, he cooperates with numerous international and development institu- tions working in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as many of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s government institution at all levels. He has participated in the preparation of severeal studies ordered by government and international organizations, as well as in the creation of domestic laws and legislation. Actively involved in civil society and their projects, he is the author, co-author and editor of more than 10 books and publications. Lucie Sedmihradská, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Department of Public Finance at the University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic. Her main research fields are public budgets and local government finance. Tome Sekerdziev is a program assistant at the OSCE Mission to Skopje and research asso- ciate at the Center for Local Development and Transparent Governance. He has worked for companies such as Development Alternatives, Inc. and the Finnish Consulting Group. Tome has authored several manuals and guidebooks on education decentralization, the establishment of municipal service centers, submunicipal governments as well as designing local development strategies. He holds a degree in Comparative Constitutional Law from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Cristina Stănuş is a political scientist and works as a research assistant at the Department of Sociology at Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She is also an associate lecturer at Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu, Romania. Her research interests include political and civic participation and local government policymaking. vii WORKING TOGETHER: INTERMUNICIPAL COOPERATION IN FIVE CENTRAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES Pawel Swianiewicz is a professor and head of the Department of Local Development and Policy at the University of Warsaw, Poland and chair of the European Urban Research Association. His main research fields are local politics and decentralization reforms in Poland as well as other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. He served on the steering committee of the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative from 2010–2011. Alba Dakoli Wilson works for FLAG (Foundation for Local Autonomy and Governance) and has contributed for fifteen years to decentralization processes in Albania. As FLAG director, team leader, and local government and waste management specialist, Alba has facilitated and delivered direct support to many local authorities. She has participated in development of national strategies and needs assessments and in the implementation of national strategies, and has compiled intervention approaches for national programs targeting individual local units and their associations. Environment and waste manage- ment, her post-graduate specialisation, is an area where Alba contributes at both the local and national levels. For the last seven years, mainly through the Council of Europe, she has supported other Central and Eastern European countries, Ukraine, and Turkey with expertise on intermunicipal cooperation and local government training and association development. viii List of Boxes, Figures, and Tables Demanded but Difficult: Intermunicipal Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe Paweł Swianiewicz Table 1. Territorial Fragmentation in Selected Countries of Central and Eastern Europe ......................................................... 12 Table 2. “Incidents” of IMC Arrangements ............................................... 14 Albania Beyond Administrative Borders: IMC in Albania Dakoli Wilson Figure 1.1 Frequency Distribution of LGUs According to Population Size ... 30 Figure 1.2 Evolution of Discretionary Revenues in Percent of Total Local Revenues (Cumulative for Country) ............................................ 33 Figure 1.3 Citizen's Satisfaction on Service Quality by LGUs (Comparison 2005–2008) .......................................................... 35 Table 1.1 Assignment of Responsibilities Exercised at the Local Level ......... 27 Table 1.2 LGUs Clustered According to Population Size Intervals for 2009 and 2001 ....................................................................... 31 Table 1.3 Comparison between Strategies Available for Improved Service Delivery ........................................................................... 37 Table 1.4 Central Inventory of Voluntary Intermunicipal Cooperation ....... 51 Table 1.5 Tasks and Reasons for Assigning IMC (Summary of Four Case Studies) .................................................. 55 Table 1.6 Legal Form, Decision-making, and Membership (Summary of Case Studies) .......................................................... 58 Table 1.7 Legal Form and