A citizen chance to merge municipalities.
The parliament has adopted the proposal which gives neighbouring municipalities the right to merge, if their citizens express such a wish, reports Index.hr on September 24, 2015.
SDP’s member of parliament Damir Mateljan said that the current system of local government, with as many as 576 units, is obsolete. “Municipalities are small, disorganized and do not have sufficient financial, physical nor human resources. Most of them alone cannot develop projects which can be applied for the EU funds. That is reason enough to start the reform of local government system”, said Mateljan. He is convinced that the proposed law is not revolutionary, but that it does offer a new tool to local government units. He believes that the process will help move Croatia towards the optimal territorial organization in the future.
Member of parliament from Istria Damir Kajin agrees there are too many municipalities in Croatia. He believes the number of local governments units should be reduced by two-thirds and has once again called for regionalization of Croatia. Mirela Holy (ORaH) agreed that Croatia needs regionalization, but is also convinced that Istria should not be a separate region. “As long as there is an Istrian goat in the crown of the Croatian coat of arms, I think no one will question the position of the Istria County and the Istrian region within Croatia”, responded Kajin.
Stjepan Milinković (HDZ) believes, however, that instead of abolishing, municipalities should actually be strengthened. He thinks that the municipalities in the Podravina region are doing excellent work and have significantly improved the quality of life.
His party colleague Ivan Šuker has described the proposed law as “pure make-up before the elections”, but has also announced that HDZ will support the proposal because of “good intentions”. He warned, however, that the ruling coalition has taken 1.8 billion kuna from the local government units, which makes any real decentralization impossible.
Boro Grubišić (HDSSB) said that the political parties are more interested in local government positions than in reforms. “Because of this resistance of big parties, we cannot implement reforms, as there is no political will.”
Administration minister Arsen Bauk pointed out that “the people have to make the next move”. “If there aren’t any mergers, there will be no damage, but if the mergers are implemented, that would mean that we have made easier for the will of the citizens to be carried out as soon as possible”, he concluded.
