Minister says admin reform to leave 30-50 municipalities in Estonia

Photo: Mihkel Maripuu

The administrative organization model based on hubs will be taken as basis in the administrative reform in Estonia and the country will have from 30-50 municipalities in the future as a result of mergers of local governments around regional hubs, Regional Affairs Minister Siim Kiisler said on Wednesday.

Kiisler told reporters he intends to come up with a plan for drafting the administrative reform bill during March. He said the bill would be based on the hubs model in line with the feedback his office has received from municipalities and the joint appeal by the general assembly of towns and rural municipalities.

The plan is that the next local elections after this year's polls, or the polls of 2017, would already be held with a new administrative division of Estonia based on the hubs model.

The Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL) minister in October 2012 sent a letter to political parties, constitutional institutions, social partners and different interest groups holding out six different scenarios that Estonia should choose from when carrying out the administrative reform.

"In many self-governments in Estonia now only the 'self' remains and no 'governing' effectively is taking place any more as the capabilities for it are lacking," Kiisler said at the time, adding that 226 municipalities was too much for Estonia.

The letter listed six options, the first of which was Estonia of mini-municipalities, meaning that the present state of affairs would be preserved. The second model was an Estonia of unions of municipalities, where the landscape of municipalities would not change but some of the present functions of municipalities would be given to public-law municipality associations formed at the county level. The third option was that of two-level Estonia, where an additional local government level would be created on the county level. The fourth option called for mergers of municipalities resulting in units of at least 3,000 residents, meaning that the country would have from 70 to 100 municipalities. Listed as fifth was the model of population hubs, where mergers would take place around the major centers and there would be between 30 and 50 units in the end, while the sixth was an Estonia of counties under which municipalities would merge broadly along the lines of the present 15 counties.

There are 226 municipalities in Estonia now, including 33 towns and cities and 193 rural municipalities. Half the municipalities have fewer than 1,800 residents and 41 have fewer than one thousand residents. The smallest municipality had 97 residents as of fall 2012.