Slovakia’s government working on reforming municipalities without them knowing

Slovakia’s interior ministry is, according to their own statement, working on a reform of public governance and municipalities, but local authorities have not been informed, EURACTIV Slovakia reports.

Reform of public governance was supposed to be one of the new government’s priorities following the 2020 elections. According to the municipalities, reform should be based on decentralisation and subsidiarity.

During summer 2020, it became a hot topic and a committee on the reform was supposed to be created by autumn 2020. But this never happened, and instead, momentum faded away:

EURACTIV Slovakia asked the interior ministry how the reform was progressing. The ministry’s spokesperson answered that the commission was finally formed last month, and the ministry is currently in the phase of analytical work and communication with relevant stakeholders. However, representatives of municipalities and the three biggest associations of municipalities told EURACTIV that the ministry is not communicating with them and that they know nothing about the committee.

Most of the municipal representatives EURACTIV approached currently do not believe that the governance reform project will be finished by November.2022 deadline, which coincides with regional elections. The ministry has conceded this, although it said that “some parts of the reform will for sure be implemented” by then.

(Michal Hudec | EURACTIV.sk)