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Luciano Boçi, co-chair of the Territorial Reform Commission, said that the new reform should guarantee financial autonomy for local units, while taking Croatia as an example. In this context, Boçi said that Croatia today benefits from millions of euros in funds, even though it has over 550 municipalities, some of which are small.
He stated that the 2014 territorial reform has failed and that one of the clearest proofs of this failure is the massive depopulation of rural areas.
Boçi emphasized that territorial reform is not the property of the government, but of the citizens, arguing that a reform without public consultation creates problems from the very beginning.
" If we implement a reform without consulting the citizen, then we have a bottomless reform, like the one in 2014 ," he said.
According to Boçi, public hearings are necessary democratic instruments to understand whether the 2014 reform has improved citizens' lives, representation, services and economic development in different territories.
He raised questions about the quality of services in Dibër and the differences between urban and rural areas, emphasizing that Albania has a complex territory and different problems from one region to another.
Boçi stated that the 2014 reform failed to bring fiscal autonomy and the promised competencies to local government, while producing deepening inequalities between municipalities.
" What was a poor municipality became even poorer ," he said, adding that this has directly impacted emigration and the emptying of rural areas.
In his speech, Boçi described the 2014 reform as a "party reform" and not an administrative one, citing as an example the difference between the districts of Dibra and Gjirokastra.
"Dibra has about 150 thousand inhabitants and only 4 municipalities, while Gjirokastra with fewer inhabitants has 7 municipalities. This shows that the reform was not administrative-territorial, but political," he declared.
Boçi also recalled that the initial reform project envisaged 47 municipalities, while the number was later increased to 61 for political reasons.
He defended the need for increased competencies and financial autonomy of local governments, strengthening of regions and inter-municipal cooperation, so that stronger municipalities can help weaker ones.
Finally, Boçi brought up Croatia as an example, which according to him has 556 municipalities and still benefits from billions of euros from European funds, arguing that the size of the municipality is not a condition for development or benefiting from funds.
" We want cooperation between municipalities. A strong municipality should help a weaker municipality. We want to strengthen the regions and give them real powers, because that's how we can solve the problem of services and decentralization."
If we do not intervene, then we will further contribute to the depopulation of the country.
Also, we should not be under pressure that the municipality must necessarily come out "profitable", because the municipality is not a business.
The state has funds, grants, and instruments to assist municipalities.
"Croatia has 556 municipalities and receives billions of euros from European funds. So the number of municipalities is not the main problem ," he said.
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