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In the 2027 local elections, Albanian citizens will vote according to the new territorial map. The socialist co-chair of the Administrative-Territorial Reform Commission, Arbjan Mazniku, said that the map is intended to be approved by October of this year.
Mazniku stated that work on the new territorial reform is continuing based on a detailed economic, financial, demographic and social analysis, while one of the options being considered, which he made public, is the merger of the Municipality of Prrenjas with that of Librazhd.
"Today we are continuing work on this draft. We heard from experts on Thursday, who presented a detailed report, which is now public. That report has a lot of important economic and financial data and information about how municipalities function ," Mazniku told "Report TV".
According to him, the report also includes a demographic analysis of each municipality, while the distances between local units and the socio-cultural proximity of communities will also be taken into consideration in drafting the reform.
"The other element has to do with the distances from one municipality to another, to ensure that, if we are going to judge possible mergers between municipalities, they are within a possible merger radius. But also the socio-cultural element, because people need to get along with each other," he said.
Mazniku argued that some municipalities fail to fulfill the functions assigned to them by law, due to the low population, lack of financial resources and human capacities.
"We have clearly stated that there are a number of municipalities that are unable to efficiently provide services to their citizens. We believe that some municipalities that are below the limits of functioning should merge with neighboring municipalities that have this capacity, creating economies of scale," he stated.
In this context, Mazniku also mentioned one of the concrete cases that is being analyzed.
"The municipality of Prrenjas is an opportunity to merge with Librazhd. It is one of the options we are analyzing. There is also the distance indicator that is part of the discussions. This is one of the typical cases where we have both dilemmas," he said.
According to the co-chair of the Commission, about 40% of municipalities in the country do not provide even half of the services they should provide to citizens.
"40% of municipalities do not even provide half of the services ," Mazniku stressed.
But not everything will be completed within this year. Mazniku explained that it will take another year to complete all the legislation through which the new municipalities will function.
"We have proposed, since we are connected to the element of the election date in 2027, where in November the President should announce the elections, which means that in October is the possible deadline for approving this reform in Parliament, so that we have time for the President to announce the elections with the new map. Meanwhile, for 3 other elements, the element of functions and competencies of municipalities, the element of municipal finances and the element of regionalization, we believe and this is the proposal that we will make to the session, that the work should continue for another year, until July 2027, since we do not have physical time limits to finish that work and we can take all the time necessary to finish that work. We will take the time to make it possible for the administrative units of municipalities to have a stronger role in providing services to citizens", said Mazniku.
Speaking about Tirana, he stated that the capital needs special treatment due to its weight in population and economy.
"Tirana has 25% of Albania's population and over 50% of the turnover generated by the Albanian economy. The map is not Tirana's problem. Tirana needs either a special law on how it functions, or a special chapter in the law on local government ," Mazniku declared.
Finally, he accused the opposition of delaying the reform process by not participating in the Commission's work for four months, but added that the proposals of its experts would be reviewed.
Despite not providing details, the socialist said that with or without the DP, the number of municipalities will decrease.
"For 4 months, the opposition did not come to the Commission, wasting 4 out of 9 months of work that we had. We have a hard deadline, or a wall, such as the election date. Because if we postpone it, we do not lose a few months, but the period 2027-2031. Because we cannot interrupt their mandate between mayors. We will read very carefully all the suggestions that the opposition experts have sent to the Commission. We will take into account all the elements of that report that are to be taken into account," Mazniku concluded.
The Commission's term expired on July 15, while at the last meeting, the DP decided to abandon the Commission and the SP continued work alone on this reform, which follows that of 2014.
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