The committee is meeting today to hear the findings of the public consultation carried out by the special committee established to examine the administrative-territorial reform.

Democratic Party MP Oerd Bylykbashi called on the committee to put the draft law on hold, pointing out that the opposition’s proposal had already been submitted to municipal councils for public consultation.

“This process cannot move forward while there is a separate initiative from a group of MPs that would bring local government much closer to citizens. The Democratic Party is proposing a total of 100 municipalities,” Bylykbashi said.

He maintained that the process cannot move forward now that the Democratic Party’s initiative has been formally submitted to Parliament.

According to Bylykbashi, the Democratic Party’s initiative has been formally submitted to the Albanian Parliament and, therefore, the current process cannot move ahead.

“We need to wait for the municipalities to give their feedback on the new draft law. Municipal councils, including those that you say will no longer exist, should have their say. Only then will Parliament be in a position to properly consider the two legislative initiatives addressing the same issue. One supports centralisation, while the other favours decentralisation,” Bylykbashi added.

Democratic Party MP Jorida Tabaku also pointed out that the committee had not produced a joint outcome, but rather a unilateral one.

She said that the Municipality of Tirana accounts for one-third of the country, yet it had not been consulted.

Tabaku stressed that unilateral reforms are destined to fall apart.

“Everything unilateral that has come before Parliament has failed. There are two initiatives before Parliament, in accordance with the parliamentary rules. We are not too late to carry out a reform that addressed the citizens’ needs,” she added.

Meanwhile, committee chair and Socialist MP Ulsi Manja pointed out that the presentation of the findings to the committee relates to the initiative submitted by the Socialist Party’s parliamentary group.

/j.p/sm/