Opposition demands to take part in new territorial reform plan

TIRANA, June 23 – The main opposition Democratic Party asked this week the governing Socialist-led coalition to cancel the proposed reform on a new territorial division in order for the opposition to join with the government in a new joint project, Tirana Mayor Lulzim Basha said.
Basha, who also serves as opposition leader, said the governing Socialists are trying to bring back the territorial split used under the former communist regime and had electoral motives behind the new internal borders.
Basha said the opposition rejects the options that are currently being discussed, calling them non-functional. He called for dialogue with the majority for a solution that works in the long term.
Basha make the comments at a conference of locally-elected center-right officials. He said that the call to the government was one to reason, warning that if the government does not sit in dialogue with them, then people will protests in the streets and squares.
The move comes at a time when the Socialist-led government and the parliament have already started the project and are holding meetings countrywide to get the impression and contribution.
The Socialists for a long time earlier this year called on the opposition to take part and set equal opportunities and duties and accountability. They also set a co-chair and same number at the parliamentary commission working on that.
The opposition abandoned the process and refused to participate for the same reasons it opposes the project today.
But the Socialists have set that reform as a goal to be completed during this session of the parliament that is over by the end of July. Time is short and the Democrats should join them if they want to pass the reform together, the Socialists say.
The central government wants to implement a major administrative reform that would shrink the number of municipalities in Albania by two thirds, and hoping to save millions in the process.
The vast majority of municipalities that operate across Albania are tiny, with 309 having a population ranging from 500 to 10,000 people. The central government and Albania’s international advisers say they are also expensive and inefficient for a small country. Half of the total number of communes raises no money through local taxes, relying entirely on the central government for funding. Fifty percent also make no investments in the communities they govern, according to a study published late last year with the assistance of the Swedish government.
“Much more can be done with the same financing resources just by changing a number of internal territorial and administrative borders,” Prime Minister Edi Rama said recently.
Rama’s Socialists and their political allies say that this reform is fundamental and required along the efforts to get Albania closer to the European Union. They also say the reform will scrap unneeded spending and bring millions in savings to the state budget.