21^st Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Congress adopts a recommendation on local and regional democracy in Slovenia

Strasbourg, 19.10.2011 - A report on local and regional democracy in Slovenia was discussed on 18 October at the 21st Congress Plenary Session. The report, which was presented by Jos Wienen (The Netherlands) and Merita Jegeni Yildiz (Turkey), expressed satisfaction that local democracy has considerably improved in Slovenia and globally complies with the European Charter of Local Self-Government.

“We were impressed with the importance given to the principles of the Charter”, stated the Rapporteurs and pointed, in particular, to options for citizen participation in local communities. Furthermore they noted that the distribution of shared state taxes has been changed and that “financing of local government had been improved”. 

The fact that the Capital City Act was passed which regulates cooperation between central government and the city municipality was highlighted, as was the widespread consensus for regions to be created, even if the number of regions remains the main point of disagreement. Furthermore the “good practices for Roma integration” were noted in some municipalities.

However the recommendation underlined that it was necessary to improve some areas, such as the process of consultation of local authorities by the government, the need to increase local authority revenue autonomy by widening local tax and fees revenue, and an excessive fragmentation of municipalities.