Focus on municipal powers, not municipal borders

A few weeks ago, in a small municipality in southern Albania, I saw about 20 residents protesting outside the mayor’s office. I went over and asked what they wanted.

“The heavy rains came,” they told me. “The road has shifted, the water pipe has burst, we can’t get to the village, we have no water, and two electricity poles have fallen.”

How was I supposed to explain to them that the water supply does not depend on the municipality, that the road does not depend on the municipality, and that electricity does not depend on the municipality either? If I had said that, they would probably have cursed me, thinking I was defending the mayor. So I left them there, protesting their fate.

Their problem still has not been solved.

This is the real issue with Albania’s municipalities: they have no real power on the ground. Any territorial reform should start from that fact. Its aim should be to return local government to local institutions.

This is especially important as Albania moves closer to EU membership. It is hard to imagine an EU member state where the village nurse is appointed by the health minister, the village water supply is managed by the Ministry of Infrastructure, local taxes on big businesses are almost meaningless, and the natural resources of a tourist municipality are treated as forbidden fruit when it comes to local revenue.

The current “public consultation” on a possible new territorial map looks less like a serious reform process and more like a mailbox for wishes: political actors, sitting mayors, and aspiring local strongmen all dropping in their preferred version. The mood seems relaxed because those listening do not appear to intend to act on what people say, while also having no clear plan of their own.

With no concrete government proposal, and no serious alternative from the opposition, the debate on territorial reform has turned into a marketplace conversation. Every fantasist, and every reasonable person too, is free to speak — but not to be heard.

The government does not have a clear version of the new territorial map. It has around four options, which sometimes become six. The opposition is in an even worse position. It has only one idea: increase the number of municipalities, so it does not look as if it failed to win any of them in elections.

If we want a rational debate — not only with the “people” who attend these meetings, but especially in parliament, where the reform will actually be voted on — we first have to decide why the territorial map should change.

In the current situation, the number of municipalities does not matter much. Since today’s municipalities have no real authority over the territory they administer, it makes little difference whether Albania has 61 municipalities, 161, or 21. Without real powers, they are not municipalities in any meaningful sense.

A real territorial reform would mean creating a new set of local powers and taking them away from the central government. Those powers should be transferred to elected officials closer to citizens.

Only then does it make sense to discuss a new territorial map.

If some small municipalities do not have the staff, capacity, or population to handle those powers, then Albania can create a new territorial structure based on a smaller number of larger districts — perhaps up to 20. The head of each district could be elected directly by the people, while the district council could function as a local parliament.

That is where the missing powers of local government should go.

Municipalities could continue to function as they are, but within a district that has real authority over infrastructure, water, electricity, healthcare, natural resources, taxes, and everything linked to the economic potential of that area.

If the political sides agree on this principle — that local management powers should be taken away from the central government and its agencies and transferred closer to citizens — then the number of municipalities becomes secondary. Double the current number or cut it in half; without powers, they will still be useless.

Real power lies in competences, not in the number of mayors.

Those competences must be moved down to a manageable number of centers with enough human capacity, so that Albania can finally have real local government. As things stand, the country has neither local power nor local competences. It has mayors who control almost nothing, except the ability to spend 12 months a year begging the government for funds and attending ribbon-cuttings.

Otherwise, enjoy the public consultations and close them by saying that nothing will be done, because neither the people, nor the government, nor the opposition really wants Albania to have local government.

And in that case, do not waste money on elections. Just appoint the mayors. As things stand, they are largely decorative anyway.

Originally published in Albanian as: Debati duhet orientuar rreth kompetencave të bashkive dhe jo rreth gjeografisë së tyre