Inter-municipal Cooperation in Austria Status Quo & Developments Alexandra Schantl, KDZ-Centre for...
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Transcript of Inter-municipal Cooperation in Austria Status Quo & Developments Alexandra Schantl, KDZ-Centre for...
Inter-municipal Cooperation in Austria
Status Quo & Developments
Alexandra Schantl, KDZ-Centre for Public Administration, Vienna
Austria Key Information
• Austria is a federation of 9 provinces (“Bundesländer”)
• 2359 municipalities • Vienna has a special regulation in the
constitution and is province (“Bundesland”) and a municipality together
Structure of Municipalities• Municipalities have between less than 100
and more than 1,6 Mio. (Vienna) inhabitants
• Nearly half of the 2357 municipalities have between 1.000 und 2.500 inhabitants and 84 % between 500 and 5.000
• 73 municipalities have more than 10.000 inhabitants, from these have 7 more than 50.000; the 2nd largest city is Graz (230.000)
Structure of Municipalities• Every municipality must have a municipal
council, a managing board and a mayor (Federal Constitution)
• The electoral period of the municipal councils is from 5 to 6 years (different legal regulations in each “Bundesland”)
• The number of members depends on the number of inhabitants
• Mayors are elected by the municipal council, in some provinces directly by the citizens
Own Municipal Competences 1The self-government is part of the Federal Constitution. The most important topics are:•appointment of the municipal bodies, •appointment of the municipal staff •local public safety administration; local events control;•administration of municipal traffic areas; local traffic police;•crops protection police;•local market police;
Own Municipal Competences 2• local sanitary police, especially in the field of
emergency and first aid services, as well as matters pertaining to deaths and burial;
• public decency;• local building police, excluding federal-owned
buildings which serve public purposes; local fire control; local development (environmental) planning;
• public services for extrajudicial settlement of disputes;
• debtors’ sale of goods;
Own Municipal Competences 3
• economic activities like:– waste– water and waste water– Energy (not always)– municipal housing– leisure facilities
The supervisory authority in the provinces can only become active in case of unlawful activities of a municipality.
Delegated CompetencesImplement and execute duties related to state administration, which are assigned: •elections•plebiscites and referendums•Citizenship issues: municipal records of all persons of Austrian nationality and the register of marriages, births and deaths•domicile registration•protection of water and waterways•safety precautions against diseases •statistical surveys
Inter-municipal CooperationStatus Quo
• Long tradition in inter-municipal cooperation
• Not fully recorded
• Different reasons to co-operate (legal obligation versus voluntary initiatives)
• Generally all municipal tasks/services can be carried out inter-municipally
Inter-municipal CooperationStatus Quo
• The support of inter-municipal cooperation differs from province to province both in money terms and non-monetary services.
• In general only the developement/ establishment and management of an inter-municipal cooperation is public co-financed, not the cooperation-activities itself.
Cooperation fields
• Most inter-communal cooperation in the following areas:– Supply and disposal (e.g. water and waste)– Regional developement and tourism– Sport and leisure infrastructure (swimming
pools, sport halls, event centres..)– Social services (social welfare associations,
retirement homes..)
Cooperation fields
– Schools (elementary and middle schools, residential accomodation for pupils)
– Single governing powers areas (municipal housing inspectorate, municipal registry of births, marriages and deaths…)
– Internal administrative services like purchases, accounting…
– Very limited cooperation in the area of rescue and fire services
Forms of Cooperation
• Cooperation form depends on the tasks and duties
• Range from informal and non or small institutionalized cooperation until strong/high institutionalized cooperation
Examples
www.verwaltungskooperation.at
Adventure Swimming Area
Frutzau
INKOBA
Developments
• Increasing awareness of the importance of inter-municipal cooperation
• Increasing willingness to cooperate and decreasing competition between the single municipalities
• Inter-municipal cooperation or merching of municipalities?
• Focus on „city-region“ cooperation
Thank you very much for your attention!
Contact: Alexandra SchantlKDZ-Centre for Public Administration ResearchTel. +43 1 8923492-37Email [email protected]