Regional reform bill passes final reading

Dec 19, 2008
TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

RIGA – The Latvian parliament has passed a bill that will reduce the number of regions in the country to 109 municipalities and nine cities from the current 553 regions.

Lawmaker started discussing the bill in the 20-hour long parliament meeting last week, but stopped discussions after calls from the opposition lawmakers because they had to deal with more urgent matters such as amendments to the 2009 national budget and the program for economic stabilization and recovery. On Dec. 18, after a nine-hour long debate, the bill was adopted with 56 votes to 38.

The bill provides for a new, revised map of the municipal territories across the country, and criteria for formation of municipalities and possible amendments of their borders.

According to the bill, Latvia's administrative territories will be districts (called "aprinkis" in Latvian), municipalities ("novads") and major cities.

The status of the major city will be assigned to Riga, Jelgava, Liepaja, Daugavpils, Ventspils, Rezekne, Jurmala, Valmiera and Jekabpils. There will be 109 municipalities.

The bill sets that a municipality should have at least 4,000 permanent residents and a city of village with at least 2,000 residents. A district will include administrative territories of local governments. The municipalities and major cities included in districts will be set by the parliament.

The bill will become effective once the president signs it. President Valdis Zatlers said that he will promulgate the bill without any hesitation.

Opponents of the bill, including opposition lawmakers and ZZS representatives, said that the bill would make it more difficult for the regions to develop with regards to -- low unemployment level, successful infrastructure, development index, social care, etc.

People's Party lawmaker Janis Klauzs said that lawmakers did not understand the issues facing the regions well enough to hold a meaningful debate on the bill.

"When I listen to this discussion... it looks like the numb one is speaking to the deaf one as he saw how the crippled one jumped over a ditch," said Klauza.

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