RIGA - Dozens of local governments have joined forces to launch a constitutional court case against a proposal to cut the number of administrative regions in the country.
A total of 31 municipal governments took their complaints over the controversial Regional Affairs Ministry plan to the court on June 6. The county governments claim that the reform plan is undemocratic and illegal.
"The counties' view is that reducing the number of counties would result in an inability to insure citizen's services," said a press release from "Liepa, Skopina/Borenius," the law firm representing the local governments.
The regional governments contend that a reduction in the number of counties could threaten cultural heritage in the regions. Moreover, the regional governments complain that health problems, financial difficulties and poor road infrastructure would prevent many people from making the longer trip to visit their local government body.
"The proposals set forth by the Ministry of Regional Affairs have not paid attention to local county concerns. Therefore the ministry has not discussed solutions for social or economic problems that will have to be dealt with if the counties are reduced," the press release said.
The municipalities will now have to wait a month while the court looks over the reform plan and the list of complaints.
"We've received the petitions from all 31 counties and have submitted it to the Constitutional Court. After a month we'll hear their decision, but at the moment we can only wait," said Matiss Skinkis, a representative of Liepa, Skopina/Borenius.
The ministry defended the plan, saying that the current system is subject to widespread inefficiency.
"In reality, when you only have 200 people in your area, around 80 percent of tax payments go to services 's schools, roads etc. 's and they really don't have enough money to insure quality," Dace Karklina, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Regional Affairs, told The Baltic Times.
"The minister himself has gone to every corner of Latvia to have discussions and consultations with regional leaders. There have been letters and information regarding the benefits of the process, so [the process] has been very democratic," she said.
Currently there are some 553 administrative regions in Latvia, a country of 2.2 million. These regions break down to 35 districts, 26 regions, 53 towns, seven cities and 432 rural municipalities.
Plans to reform the regions have been on the table for years.
In 2001 the government approved a model of 102 municipal authorities over alternatives calling for 33 and 167. In 2006 the government adopted the "167-project," but this was dumped when Aigars Stokenbergs took up the post of regional minister and said the country could do with far fewer local authorities.
In September 2007 the government approved a new map that divides Latvia into 96 municipalities and nine cities.
The plan was put on hold after the government collapsed later that year and the Greens and Farmers Union threatened to pull out of the coalition if the reform went ahead.
