Its members draw attention to the fact that consultation with local communities is a constitutional and European principle.
“For any boundary change, communities must be consulted beforehand through a local referendum,” says the European Charter of Local Self-Government, CALM recalls.
Reducing representativeness in decision-making on boundary changes would weaken local democracy and open the way for political interference.
The mayors also draw attention to the principle of subsidiarity. Decisions should be made as close as possible to the citizen and services should be as accessible as possible.
“The 25-km distance provision was presented as a guarantee of closer access to services. However, its abolition proves the opposite. It is a reduction of services and centralization of decision-making. In fact, political goals are being pursued: creating town halls where it benefits the electoral system rather than where there is a community need,” according to CALM members.
Reducing the number of neighborhoods
At the same time, the mayors believe that voluntary association cannot be seen in isolation. It needs to be integrated into the process of public administration reform, which should include:
- Financial incentives for merging communities for a period of at least 5 years;
- reduction in the number of districts and the creation of regions;
- municipalization of growth pole cities to consolidate public services.
At the same time, CALM rejects a number of provisions of the draft, including:
- Lowering the voting threshold for unification decisions;
- arbitrary establishment of the administrative center of a consolidated ATU;
- rigid criteria regarding population size and common boundary;
- exclusion of an economic criterion vital to the development of the ATU.
- The members of the organization call for the establishment of a working group to substantially revise the text and express the hope that their expert opinion will be taken into account in the Parliament.
Earlier, logos-pres.md reported that the amendments to the current unification mechanism were approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on March 25. The draft has been submitted to parliament.
