Slovenia Unitary state

Reforms

Many centralising legislative proposals affecting local governments are being implemented in Slovenia, while the regionalisation of the country remains postponed.

There are 211 municipalities in Slovenia today and 1 more being established, which will begin to function formally after local elections in autumn 2014. The organization of a municipality as a basic unit of local self-government is prejudiced in the Constitution of Slovenia and in greater detail in the Local Selfgovernment Act as an umbrella act in the field. The Law on Local Selfgovernment, enacted in 1993 and revised various times since, defines the operations, rights and authority of local self-governments and their relationship to the state.

In 2013 some attempts to change the Act on local elections and the Act on local-self-government have been made. The proposal was tightening the criteria for the termination of the mandate of the municipal council members, the mayor and deputymayor.

In 2012 and 2013, massive interferences in the legislation regarding local self-governments financing were attempted. Lump sum amounts for the year 2013 and 2014 were decreased by more than 10%. Recently the government proposed a law on financing the Municipalities, which breaches the principles of the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the recommendations of the Council of the EU in terms of budget management.

Law on real estate tax could cause great damage to the financial sufficiency of local self-government. It critically encroaches upon the right of municipalities to have the real estate tax as their own revenues with the constraint to share it by half with the central government. The act will enter into force in the beginning of 2014.

At the same time, a proposal of the national territorial organisation, without consulting the municipalities or the representative organisations, was presented to the public, introducing the concept of eliminating all municipalities with less than 5 000 inhabitants with the clear premise of supposed moneysaving. After harsh critique, it was postponed until 2018.

The 2006 Constitutional amendments in the area of local self-government will enable Slovenia to get a twotiered self-government. After years of professional and political debates, the model which already prevails strongly in most European countries is considered. A visit by the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in 2011 highlighted how important the creation of regions is in Slovenia. Today, in spite of several attempts, there is still no agreement on the number of regions or their particular competences. The establishment of the regions is postponed due to the lack of political will.

Local self-government in Slovenia:

The European Charter of Local Self-government seems to be well known, but in crisis, less respected in the country. The mission representing the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities pointed out the frailty of local governments’ autonomy and the need to create true regions in Slovenia.