New map with 46 municipalities / The experience of 2014 as a warning: Merging local units increased taxes, but not the quality of services for citizens

Albania is preparing to change its local government map for the second time in just over a decade.

The majority’s draft law proposes reducing the number of municipalities from 61 to 46 by merging 15 of them with larger neighboring units.

But the debate should not be limited to the number of municipalities. The essential questions are whether the new map will achieve better management of the areas covered by local government and genuinely improve services for citizens.

The experience of the 2014 reform is not encouraging. The merger of 373 local government units into 61 municipalities was intended to create economies of scale, more professional administrations and higher-quality services.

Local revenues increased because municipalities took on more functions and imposed higher taxes and fees, but this did not translate into a corresponding improvement in services.

The World Bank found that water supply, sewage, waste management, education, childcare and disaster response deteriorated in areas with greater needs, especially in rural territories.

As residents were forced to travel for hours to obtain even a minimum level of service, this also fueled the depopulation of these areas, a subject previously covered by “Monitor.”

This is the lesson that risks being overlooked once again: administrative mergers reduce the number of institutions, but they do not shorten the distance between citizens and services.

When decision-making centers move farther away and administrative units lack the budget, staff and real authority, economies of scale for the municipality can become an additional cost for residents.

The claim that the 2024 reform created smaller and more efficient administrations has also completely fallen apart. The local government workforce doubled from around 19,000 employees in 2014 to more than 39,000 in 2025. Last year, around half of the local government budget went to personnel, up from 25.5% in 2021.

In many small municipalities, salaries account for more than 60% of the budget, leaving little room for investment. Meanwhile, the ratio of employees per 1,000 residents increased by around 8.2% in 2024 alone.

The increase in personnel is partly related to functions transferred from the central government, so it cannot all be treated as administrative bloat.

Nevertheless, there are no analyses assessing the usefulness of the increase in the number of employees. In 2024, waste collection services covered an average of 85.6% of the population, but only around 65% of rural residents. Thus, after a decade of reform, a large part of the villages still remains without a basic service.

The experience showed that the 2014 reform was distorted during its implementation. Many functions were transferred piecemeal to local government, creating chaos in the delivery of services.

Fires are the clearest example of the consequences of unclear responsibilities: fire stations and firefighting units depend on municipalities, standards are overseen by the Ministry of the Interior, while major operations are supposed to be directed by the National Civil Protection Agency. This creates several decision-making centers that slow down intervention and allow responsibility to be passed from one institution to another.

The consultation process for the new reform also raises questions. The process began through a commission presented as bipartisan, but ended without a consensus-based outcome. The draft law providing for 46 municipalities was submitted to Parliament and only afterward sent to the municipalities, which were given 60 days to consult with citizens. This creates the impression that citizens are being asked for their views after the map has already been configured.

A serious consultation should have been held before the preferred option was selected. An impact analysis should have been published for every merger: how much would be saved, which services would improve, how far citizens would have to travel, how the budget would be allocated and what representation communities losing their municipal status would receive.

The hearings should have included not only local leaders, but also village residents, businesses, farmers and groups that use local services every day.

The new reform should have begun with an analysis of the problems created by the first reform and the current problems residents face with services—not with boundaries.

First, a minimum standard should have been established: how far citizens should be from a service counter, how often waste should be collected and what level of coverage should be provided for roads, irrigation, firefighting, social care and preschool education. Only then could it be decided whether the solution was a merger, cooperation between municipalities, stronger administrative units or increased funding.

A municipality’s limited capacity is not automatically an argument for dissolving it. It may be the result of insufficient funding, a lack of professional staff or functions that do not match available resources.

For this reason, the new map should have been accompanied by local finance reform, along with clearly identified powers and budgets for cities and administrative units.

Appointing a deputy mayor in the city that loses its municipal status does not guarantee proximity to citizens if that official lacks authority and resources.

The 2014 reform showed that larger municipalities do not necessarily mean more functional municipalities.

If only the boundaries change, Albania may have 46 municipalities instead of 61, but the same problems with funding, administration and services.

The new map will make sense only if citizens receive better, faster services closer to where they live and are not forced to abandon their communities because of a lack of services. It must not become an additional mechanism for encouraging migration and the abandonment of remote areas.

Ultimately, the essence of local government independence is also linked to creating an institutional environment that supports the effective representation of communities, no matter how small or economically powerless they may be. The concentration of centers of power in Albania has always led to reduced representation of this kind./ Monitor.al