Moldovan MPs adopt draft law on amalgamation of administrative, territorial units in second reading

Chisinau, 31 July /MOLDPRES/ - The draft law on the voluntary amalgamation of the administrative and territorial units was adopted with the votes of 52 MPs in the second reading today.   

The new law’s goal is to create a normative framework needed for the voluntary amalgamation of the first-level administrative and territorial units (UAT), in order to consolidate the administrative capacities of the local public authorities and provide public quality and accessible services to residents.  

Under the draft, the voluntary amalgamation implies a voluntary merger of two or more first-level UAT (villages/communes and towns/municipalities), based on decisions by local councils, with the observance of certain conditions, criteria and procedures. Thus, in the basic conditions of the voluntary amalgamation, it is stipulated that the territory of the administrative and territorial unit must be continuous, with a population of at least 3,000 residents and the distance from the amalgamated UAT’s administrative centre up to the centre of any of the units it is made up of should not exceed 25 km.   

Among the criteria of selection of the amalgamated UAT’s administrative centre, there are the demography (UAT with the largest number of residents), the fiscal capacity related per one resident, as well as the capacity of providing public services.   

The process of voluntary amalgamation will be started based on the decisions by the local councils of the first-level administrative and territorial unit, adopted with the votes of the majority of the elected councilors, at a proposal by the mayor, of one third of the number of elected councilors or of 10 per cent of the number of citizens with right to vote who live in the concerned unit.    

The draft law on the voluntary amalgamation of the administrative and territorial units was worked out by the State Chancellery, in cooperation with development partners and is part of the Public Administration Reform Strategy for 2023-2030.  

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