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The assertion is that of the eminent specialist for urban planning, Professor Martin Junkernheinrich (University of Kaiserslauten), who prepared the report on behalf of the Ministry of the Interior. This means that about half of the 163 collective municipalities (“Verbandsgemeinden”) of the state would be potential candidates for amalgamation – a prospect that is political dynamite. We interviewed the Minister of the Interior for Rhineland-Palatinate, Karl Peter Bruch, on this burning issue.
Playground@Landscape: Why is communal reform or communal amalgamation being envisaged at all? Why has this become necessary?
Minister Karl Peter Bruch: We last undertook a major local administrative and government shake-up in Rhineland-Palatinate over 30 years ago. The state government now considers that the existing structure of local government needs to be optimised through a communal and administrative reform in view of the challenges that we will need to face in future. Hence the significant demographic changes we are undergoing – an overall fall in population, an increase in the relative numbers of senior citizens and a decrease in that of the younger generations in our state - together with the situation of public finances mean that appropriate reforms have become essential. Because of the necessary changes to the areas of accountability assigned to local authorities, the relevant structural modifications cannot be avoided. Not only this, but the availability of new information and communication technologies means that completely new vistas have been opened up with regard to the methods that can be used for local administration. We also need to take this in account when planning our communal structures.
Playground@Landscape: Why is communal reform seen as being particularly beneficial for the state of Rhineland-Palatinate?
Minister Karl Peter Bruch: Rhineland-Palatinate has a population of 4.02 million, 2259 civil parish councils, 163 collective municipalities, 27 stand-alone municipalities, eight major cities incorporated in administrative districts, 24 administrative districts and 12 independently administered cities. In comparison with the other states that make up the Federal Republic of Germany, Rhineland-Palatine thus has the most local administrative bodies.
At the local level, the administrative structure within the districts is mainly made up of collective municipalities and civil parish councils. This system is unique within Germany and there is no doubt that the basic concept has been effective over the past decades. We in state government see the collective municipality/civil parish council model as a viable one for the future. The civil parish councils can rapidly make the decisions that are appropriate for their own citizens. They also provide a basis through which our citizens can make their own, voluntary contribution towards local government. Much communal business would simply never get done, or not get done in the way it is at present, without the commitment of all those unpaid volunteers.
The collective municipalities undertake administrative functions on behalf of the civil parish councils. They are also responsible for certain aspects of communal self-government that the parish councils are not usually in the position to provide in the quality or with the cost-effectiveness required, such as administration of the water supply, waste water treatment and fire protection services. The collective municipalities also have some state-level responsibilities; they maintain registration offices and operate passport and personal ID card systems.
It has become necessary to introduce changes to the geographical and administrative structures of our collective municipalities to preserve the tried and tested collective municipality/parish council system and ensure that the collective municipalities continue to provide efficient and cost-effective services to the parish councils and to their citizens. The same is also the case for the stand-alone municipalities that are responsible for those local government tasks that are elsewhere undertaken by the collective municipalities and the civil parish councils.
The improvement of the geographical and administrative structures of the stand-alone and collective municipality authorities will represent the first phase of our integrated communal structural reform. In a subsequent phase, we will be taking a closer look at the administrative district structure and the situation of the independently administered cities.
Playground@Landscape: What are the principal arguments being put forward by those who oppose communal reform?
Minister Karl Peter Bruch: In connection with our proposed territorial changes to the stand-alone and collective municipalities, doubts have been raised that larger municipalities will be able to operate more economically than smaller units. Not only that, but citizens fear that local government will become more “distant” and they will have less access due to the formation of larger administrative units.
With the proposed communal and administrative reform in Rhineland-Palatine as a background, a survey has recently been undertaken that clearly shows that there is a correlation in the case of collective municipalities between increased population size and reduction of the costs of administration. A significant effect of the size of communities on general running costs has also been demonstrated for stand-alone municipalities. The fear that larger units will be less citizen-orientated is to be countered by the provision of an extensive range of communal services. One of the aims of the communal and administrative reform is to further extend the catalogue of services provided at local authority level. Citizens will be provided with more opportunities and will find it easier than under the present system to obtain help with administrative matters in citizen’s advice bureaux with sensible opening times and will also be able to use the services offered through a mobile citizen’s advice service and the virtual eGovernment portals.
It should be borne in mind that, even at present, our citizens on the whole tend to have little direct contact with their local municipal or collective municipal authority. On average, they will have dealings with these bodies perhaps twice a year.
Playground@Landscape: What are the positive aspects of the reform? Are there municipalities in the state that would especially benefit or lose as a result of the reform? Which would these be and why?
Minister Karl Peter Bruch: The purpose of the communal and administrative reform is to enhance the performance, competitive and administrative capacities of the stand-alone and collective municipalities over the long term. Municipal authorities with the necessary performance, competitive and administrative capacities will be able in future to supply high quality and economical self-government together with the services delegated to them from state level. It will also be their responsibility to provide an adequate range of public facilities for their citizens. Cost-effective administration will result in considerable reduction of the communal charges that the citizens will need to meet or at least help keep these within reasonable limits. The same will be the case with the parish council costs that the collective municipalities need to find. These levies are the main financial instrument employed by the collective municipalities. Those who will gain through the reform will thus be predominantly our citizens and the local authorities. Nobody stands to lose as far as I can see.
Playground@Landscape: At its sitting today on 20 April 2010, the Council of Ministers approved your drafts for a first and second state law for the implementation of the communal and administrative reform. To what extent will citizens be able to participate in the process?
Minister Karl Peter Bruch: From the very beginning, the communal and administrative reform has been conceived to ensure that there can be extensive participation by our citizens. In a two-phase process that is unique within Germany, our citizens have been encouraged to actively contribute towards preparing for the reforms. They have told the state government what they think of the proposed reforms through regional congresses, citizens’ assemblies and opinion groups, a representative telephone survey of the population in which 10,000 were interviewed, an online survey and through many individual contributions. They have provided us with a wealth of proposals, suggestions, ideas, advice and critical input with regard to our future administrative and communal territorial structures. The state government took these contributions into account when drafting the first and second state laws for the implementation of communal and administrative reform.
In order to enhance direct participation in local government on the part of citizens, the draft of the first state law for implementation of the reforms reduces the number of signatures required for citizens’ initiatives and the size of the quorum required in referendums – the objective being to make it easier to implement citizen’s initiatives and referendums at the local level. The draft also includes a so-called “experimental” clause, the aim of which is to try out an enhanced level of direct participation and involvement of citizens in municipal self-government.
Playground@Landscape: The first state law for the implementation of the communal and administrative reform provides for changes to the geographical structure of the municipalities. How will this be achieved?
The second state law for the implementation of the communal and administrative reform requires the redistribution of responsibilities. In what form?
Minister Karl Peter Bruch: The main purpose of the first state law for the implementation of communal and administrative reform is to put in place provisions that will strengthen the performance, competitive and administrative capacities of the stand-alone and collective municipalities. The specifications of the draft law of the state government, which has since been approved by the state parliament, mean that the required performance, competitive and administrative capacities should be available in existing stand-alone municipalities with a population of at least 10,000 and collective municipalities with a minimum population of 12,000. The state government believes that collective and stand-alone municipalities that are at least this big will in future be able to provide services in the necessary quality and with the required cost-effectiveness. There is a direct correlation between the size of the population of a municipality and its ability to function effectively.
The proposed strengthening of the territorial and administrative structures of the stand-alone and collective municipalities will be achieved by means of amalgamation. The first stage of the process will be a phase of voluntary amalgamation. During this phase, the relevant stand-alone and collective municipalities will be able to seek suitable partners for amalgamation and negotiate the terms of this with the prospective partner. At this stage, the municipalities themselves will thus have a considerable say in determining the future of municipal structures. Any required geographical changes that are not achieved through voluntary amalgamation will, according to the draft of the first law for implementation of the reform, be imposed through legislation without the consent of the municipalities in question.
The draft of the second law for the implementation of the reform requires the redistribution of responsibilities from ministries to intermediate authorities at state level, and from there to the municipalities, and further to the local level. The aim of this is to make local government more citizen-, purpose- and location-orientated. Together with the remodelling of procedures and administrative processes, this should provide for further improvement to the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of services.
At the sitting of 20 April 2010, the Council of Ministers approved the drafts of the first and second state laws for the implementation of the communal and administrative reform. In our subsequent consideration of these drafts in parliament, we will also be looking at the possible effects of the introduction of these laws and the recently prepared and unveiled report of the International Institute for Comparative Government and European Policy in Berlin on communal and administrative reform. It is expected that the measures envisaged for the communal and administrative reform will be placed in time for the state-wide local elections to be held in 2014.
The interviewer was Thomas R. Müller (Playground@Landscape)
