Teritorijalne reforme subnacionalnih organizacijskih razina država članica Europske unije – stanje i trendovi
Territorial reform of the subnational government system in EU member states – Current status and trends

Summary/Abstract: Territorial consolidation, as one of the tools in optimizing local and regional government, whether it increases a specific territory by merging multiple units (amalgamation, de-fragmentation) or decreases it by dividing an existing larger unit into one or more new, smaller ones (fragmentation), triggers intense debates at the local (regional), or subnational level, as well as at the national level. The subject of this research is the organization of the subnational government system in Europe, with the primary objective being the determination of trends in territorial reforms of the subnational level, considered the most sensitive processes in public sector optimization. The paper initially examines historical data on territorial reforms in the EU-27 from 1960 to the present, identifying main periods and drivers of implemented reforms. Furthermore, the fragmentation of European states in the last decade is explored, comparing it with the situation in the Republic of Croatia, ultimately describing and determining territorial reforms carried out in European countries over a twenty-year time frame starting from 2000 in the final part of the research. The collected data, the analysis and the synthesis in the final section lead to conclusions about recent trends in reforms based on territorial consolidation through amalgamation, which constitutes the main contribution of this paper.

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