Estonian experts slash municipalities

TALLINN- Under the conditions, it is necessary to cut the number of localgovernments, director of the EstonianInstitute of Economic Research Marje Josing said.

She said that administratively speaking, Estoniawas suffering from a economic slowdown and that shortage of good specialistswas the main problem for the country's municipalities.

"We have 1.3 million people living here, in Parisincluding suburbs there are eight million. We're like one distrist of Paris,but a district in Paris doesn'tthink that each street should have a local government of its own," Josingwas quoted as saying by the national broadcasting company ERR.

It is the shortage of sharp wit and good specialists that poses the biggestproblem for municipalities in Estonia,she said.

"Why is it that in some municipalities everything develops andprogresses, whereas in others it doesn't? Often it is due to the leadership ofthe municipality, their inability to find contacts and investors, writeprojects," Josing added.

When a municipality of 700 residents is not able to secure jobs, it isn't asolution that you have an official sitting there holding on to his or her job,Josing argued.

Estoniamade a mistake when it restored 240 municipalities after regainingindependence, said Josing.

Latvia and Finlandon the other hand cut the number of their municipalities as a result ofadministrative reforms. A rural municipality should have natural borders and asize enabling it to hire professional specialists, she added.

Josing also stressed that the purpose of cutting the number ofmunicipalities must not be saving but development.

The administrative reform in Estoniastarted in 1997 with a proposal from three ministers to cut the number ofcounty governments from 15 to four and reduce the number of municipalities byat least two-thirds by local elections of 1999.

There were 227 municipalities, or 194 rural municipalities and 33 towns, in Estoniathis spring, 14 fewer than before the last local elections.

According to Eurostat figures from 2001, the average number of residentsliving in the territory of a municipality in Estoniais 5,500, compared with the EU average of 5,100.