- According to the CIS, the change could save EUR 500 million.
- Lunter proposes to restructure the district offices instead of reducing regions.
Direction-SD is ready to vote for a reduction in the number of higher territorial units. The Slovak National Party, which came up with the proposal, as well. Today, this question is based primarily for voice-SD, which did not comment on the coalition council on Thursday (14 August). Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) announced it at a Friday press conference.
As he pointed out, the reduction of the number of higher territorial units is one of the ways of investigating the funds of finance that would not endanger the functioning of the state. “We are ready to vote for it, we have no problem with it,” he repeated. He noted that the constitutional law is not necessary for the approval of such a proposal, because the Constitution of the Slovak Republic is only talking about the anchoring of higher territorial units and not their number. “I’m curious about what the opposition tells us,” Fico added.
The Slovak National Party proposed a reduction in self -governing regions from eight to four on Thursday’s coalition council. The model would be based on the historical organization of Slovakia and would create four regions, namely Bratislava, west, center, east. According to the party, the reform of self -governing regions would save more than € 500 million by reducing the number of offices and removal of duplicates.
Lunter: Reduction of the number of self -governing regions would reduce the quality of life of people
Reduction of the number of self -governing regions would cripple the functioning of self -governing units for several years and reduce the quality of life of people in Slovakia. This was stated for TASR by the President of the Banská Bystrica self -governing region (BBSK) Ondrej Lunter in response to the CIS proposal.
“The self -governing regions together with the municipalities are some of the few institutions that work properly and fulfill their function in Slovakia. This is also because, among other reasons, because in all crisis situations, whether it was a war in Ukraine or Covid, these were the municipalities that held the state and actively helped citizens”Said Lunter.
According to the chairman of the BBSK, the reduction of the number of self -governing regions in half would brought savings a maximum of several tens of million euros, And not over 500 million, as presented by the CIS. “Schools will not disappear, social services will not be reduced, all organizations require a certain number of people who manage them and nothing will change,” Lunter explained.
As he added, he said he would have brought a reform of 79 district offices, the reform of the functioning, whose competences could pass under the regions or local governments following the example of the Czech Republic.
