Territorial reforms in Europe: Does size matter? Territorial Amalgamation Toolkit Tools for Local developed by November 2017 and Central Paweł Authorities Swianiewicz Adam Gendźwiłł University of Warsaw, Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies and Alfonso Zardi for the CENTRE OF EXPERTISE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM This document has been produced using funds of a Joint Project between the European Union and the Council of Europe. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union or the Council of Europe. © Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform, Council of Europe – 2017 Territorial Amalgamation – TOOLKIT Table of contents Table of contents.....................................................................................................................................1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................................3 How to use this document ..................................................................................................................5 The changing map of local government in Europe from 1950 to 2015...................................................7 Amalgamation: a good or bad idea? The discourse of territorial reforms ............................................20 Introducing the ‘decisional tree’ ...........................................................................................................29 Territorial reform step by step ..............................................................................................................32 Step 1: Diagnosis of the current situation .........................................................................................36 Step 2: Identifying the goals of the reform in detail .........................................................................38 Step 3: Defining alternative scenarios: would inter-municipal cooperation be an option?..............39 Step 4: Defining criteria for new territorial organisation ..................................................................42 Step 5: Preparing impact scenarios for the reform ...........................................................................46 Step 6: Building reform coalition (including: relationship with the political opposition)..................48 Step7: Preparing solutions to reduce negative effects and possible stakeholder fears....................50 Step 8: Consultations with stakeholders and communication strategy ............................................53 Step 9: Building implementation plan: one-step or two-step reform? .............................................57 Step 10: Preparing transitional provisions ........................................................................................61 Step 11: Orchestrating with other elements of local government architecture: powers, functions and resources ....................................................................................................................................62 Evaluation of the reform .......................................................................................................................65 The ‘dodecalogue’ of territorial reform ................................................................................................71 1. Justify the need for amalgamation ..............................................................................................71 2. Anchor amalgamation in a wider reform process.......................................................................71 3. Explain and build support ............................................................................................................72 4. Craft the reform in a technically solid way..................................................................................73 5. Have a clearly identified leader for the reform ...........................................................................73 6. Ensure that political support is as wide as possible....................................................................74 7. Examine viable options and potentially leave the choice open .................................................74 8. Consult existing municipalities on the future amalgamation ....................................................75 9. Provide effective support to amalgamating municipalities in order to make the reform successful..........................................................................................................................................75 1 Territorial Amalgamation – TOOLKIT 10. Include the elections factor in your reform plans .....................................................................76 11. Evaluate the outcomes and learn from the lessons of the reform ...........................................76 12. Elicit international support and/or financing .............................................................................77 Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................................79 Appendix 1. Academic studies of impacts of territorial reforms in various European countries – literature review....................................................................................................................................84 Appendix 2 . Case study – territorial reform in Albania (2014/2015) ...................................................93 Appendix 3. Inter-Municipal Cooperation as a French way to deal with a territorial fragmentation issue.......................................................................................................................................................99 Appendix 4. Case study – territorial reform in Ukraine.......................................................................102 Appendix 5: Recommendation Rec(2004)12 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the processes of reform of boundaries and/or structure of local and regional authorities (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 20 October 2004 at the 900th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies) .......106 Appendix 6: Explanatory Note on the Preparation of the National Work Programmes on Decentralisation / Local Government Reforms ...................................................................................115 2 Territorial Amalgamation – TOOLKIT Introduction Territorial reforms have become a major feature of public administration reform in recent decades in Europe. Following a wave of changes affecting mostly Western European countries in the 1970s, further changes were initiated in Central and Eastern Europe at the turn of that same century following the demise of undemocratic regimes. In the early years of the twenty-first century, in the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis that has shaken primarily but not exclusively Western European States, another wave of restructuring has been set in motion. The rationale for these changes varies widely: the first epoch was characterised by a quest for modernisation, rationalisation and above all ‘economies of scale’. The changes introduced in the post-socialist countries aimed at bringing back a high degree of municipal autonomy at the cost of territorial fragmentation where previous regimes had sought centralisation and direct command from the centre. And the – still ongoing – response to the financial crisis seemingly appears to be aimed at reducing costs, improving service delivery and rationalising decision-making processes if at the cost of loosening the connection between the citizens (voters) and decision-making bodies – or even relieving local authorities of some of their functions to be ‘returned’ to a higher tier or the State. All these changes affected the various tiers of government in most European States, from the first level (the municipal or communal level) to the intermediate (county, province) up to the meso (region) level, occasionally involving also the reorganisation of the State’s own peripheral structures at local/meso level. Changes mostly tended to reduce the number of municipal/local governments through amalgamation or enhanced inter-municipal cooperation, the result often being a drastic reduction in the number of local government units (communes) and an increase in their geographical size and population. In some cases – metropolitan areas – specific attempts were made at pulling small municipalities together around bigger conurbations with a view to creating large ‘metropolises’ that would constitute ‘hubs’ for service delivery and economic development. This document is however only concerned with reform of the first tier of government, namely municipal/communal level, whatever the name of this tier in the member States concerned (‘local government unit’ is also widely used in some parts of Europe). The terminology may subsequently vary – in the rest of this document – but the scope is the same throughout it. Secondly, the document deals with territorial reform in the narrowest of senses. This broad term may cover at least the following changes: Amalgamations (mergers) of local government units, which leads to territorial consolidation through a reduction in the number of local governments Splits of local governments leading to an increase of number of units and territorial fragmentation 3 Territorial Amalgamation – TOOLKIT Changes of geographical borders of neighbouring local governments,