Verejná správa v štátoch Európskej únie
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Summary/Abstract: In the last twenty years, different countries of the European Union have implemented reforms in favour of a greater decentralisation for local governments: increasing their responsibilities, a priori controls removed, tax autonomy consolidated, decreasing in the level of earmarked financial transfers in favour of general transfers, creation of new local government tiers. A number of these reforms concerned the regional level. This general move towards a consolidation of regions was undertaken with several goals in mind, such as the im-provement of country planning or better living standards for local inhabitants. The scope, the conditions and the degree of achievement of these reforms vary from one country to another. There are three main „local governments models“, depending on the State organisa-tion (unitary, federal or „regionalized“). However, the specific characteristics of some countries sometimes make it difficult to classify them in one of the three „models“. The local government territorial organisation in the EU countries varies a lot, with each country finding its own balance between the need to manage local matters at local level and the necessity of having local governments large enough to be able to provide and manage local public services. In some countries, local governments of a same level are homogenous, while in others, as the federated States and some unitary States such as Spain, Italy, Ireland or the United Kingdom, they are diverse. There are currently 74 000 local governments in Europe. Depending on the country, they are broken down into a one, two or three-tier local government. The first local government tier, known as „municipalities“, is responsible for the management of local community based services: water supply and sewerage, collection and household waste treatment, culture, urbanism, local road network, social welfare, school upkeep, etc. The countries with the highest average number of inhabitants per municipality are the United Kingdom (more then 130 000), Ireland (47 200), Portugal (36 000), the Netherlands (31 500) and Sweden (30 700). In the European Union, there is an average of 5 200 inhabitants per municipality. In most countries the second local government tier is generally responsible for road network, education, social welfare (the disabled, child care, etc.) and for environmental protection. In countries with two-tier local government system the second local govern-ment tier is generally responsible for sectors such as local development and country planning, generally the responsibility of regional local governments in countries with a three-tier local government system. In countries with a three-tier local government system, the position of the second local government tier varies from one country to an-other.

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