Center’s parliamentary group calls for discussion of Administrative Reform Act
The Center Party’s parliamentary group announced a sitting in the Riigikogu for Thursday Sept. 15 to discuss the subject of administrative reform. Several dozen representatives of local councils are expected to attend.
Chairwoman of the Center Party's parliamentary group Kadri Simson said on Friday that the Administrative Reform Act still needed to be debated substantively. Simson pointed out that Minister of Public Administration Arto Aas (Reform) had announced detailed plans for the execution of the law for the second quarter of the year, but that there still was no sign of them.
Simson said that the Riigikogu’s autumn session beginning on Monday would be very busy, and that with the announced protest of the farmers’ associations early on next week, her party wanted to raise the issue of unclarity surrounding the Administrative Reform Act already on Thursday.
The Center Party doubts that there will be enough time to discuss and introduce the detailed directives for the application of the law before the deadline for municipalities to merge.
According to the schedule attached to the law, local councils have until May 2017 to negotiate and agree to mergers to meet the goal of larger and more populous municipalities. But despite the far-reaching consequences it will have for subjects ranging from territorial borders and local place names to how local elections should be held, very little detail has yet been set out how it should all be put into practice.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn