News - Details
Decentralization of public administration through territorial and functional reforms
© Deskcube www.fotosearch.de
On November 8, 2021, the seventh Masterclass organized by the Governance Fund took place, this time on the topic of "Decentralization of public administration through territorial and functional reforms". In the two-hour event, Prof. Dr. Dieter Schimanke, former State Secretary and expert in the field of public administration, spoke about how Germany was able to create efficient municipal and district administrations across the country and what tasks they perform today. Another substantive contribution to the topic came from Professor János Brenner, Honorary Professor at the Budapest University of Technology, who gave an overview of the recently implemented territorial reforms in Ukraine. The Masterclass, which took place online and was simultaneously translated into Russian, was well attended and attracted more than 50 participants, mainly from Ukraine, Cambodia and Moldova.
After a brief welcome by Karen Losse from the Governance Fund and moderator Kah Walla, Professor Schimanke first gave an overview of the structure of the political-administrative system in Germany and the decentralization reforms the country has undergone in the past. He explained that in the 1970s and 1980s there was a basic political consensus in West Germany to strengthen the decentralization of public administration and, in particular, local government. The focus was on creating efficient administrations at the municipal and district level. All of Germany's states have carried out local government reforms, albeit with considerably different concepts and models. The newly formed municipal administrations were able to take on more tasks, which were then transferred to them in the course of a functional reform. In East Germany, the process of territorial and functional reforms was carried out after the fall of the Berlin Wall in the 2000s and 2010s.
After a short break, Professor Schimanke then gave an overview of the tasks that were transferred to the municipalities and the districts, their financing and, last but not least, the steering and control of the task fulfillment of the municipal self-governments by the technical and legal supervision of the federal states.
Professor János Brenner then reported on the territorial reforms in Ukraine. Here, the decentralization process began in 2014 with a concept on the reform of local self-government and territorial power structure. Subsequently, the legal basis for the reform was created. In particular, the merger of "hromadas" (municipalities) and the transfer of far-reaching tasks to them are considered a success of the Ukrainian territorial and functional reform.
The presentation was followed by a lively exchange between the participants and the two experts, which showed that the topic of decentralization reforms is of great interest to many countries and that there is a need for further exchange formats.
Category :Region :
Zurück zur Liste