Press release: On the session of the Government about the amelioration of the law on municipalities

The Government doesn’t respond to the need of a complex reform of self-administration of
municipalities, it only acts in favour of the mayors’ lobby

Slovak self-administration of municipalities needs a profound and complex reform. As put by an
expert of the Center for Open Policy, and the member of local council in Dolný Kubín, Ján Raclavský,
”Today, the Government discussed an amelioration of law, which main aim is to change the mayor-
council relationships. Decrease of the number of council members is only a minor adjustment, which
tries to camouflage the Government’s inability to perform a complex reform. First step of a long-
awaited reform should be the re-evaluation of powers of the municipalities and the second, decrease
in their number.
Reform of the municipalities, based on an economic analysis of Institute of Financial Policy, could
save as much as €316m. However, the Government is not acting towards this goal, making only
cosmetic adjustments in favour of mayors, who will gather more power in their hands. Therefore, the
Government should start a discussion on a reform and include various relevant parties.