Minister Demo: The elephant in the room is territorial reform
2026-01-28 12:18:33
TiranaPost
At a press conference, the Minister of State for Local Government, Ervin Demo, spoke about the challenges of local government, the Local Government Academy, the Mountain Package and especially the territorial reform. The latter, Demo considered the “elephant in the room”, as the key element to facilitate local management, in function of the country’s development with the aim of European integration.
“The territorial reform is an important instrument for municipalities to have the assets and growth potential from the beginning, being ready to face the challenges.
The process will begin in a few days, it will be transparent, inclusive, not just municipalities, but society must be involved.
Territorial reform must be based on data and on the experience we have.
Territorial reform, if we use it properly, I hope it will not last just 10 years, but much longer”, said Ervin Demo, among other things.
To the question: Will the territorial reform affect the competencies of municipalities?
Minister Demo replied:
Different actors approach the territorial reform from their own perspective. This is a good opportunity to also analyze the functions of local government.
We should not perceive it as if we are drawing some new borders. We should look at what the challenges of tomorrow may be, because they will not be the challenges of yesterday tomorrow”, said Minister Ervin Demo.
When asked if there is a number on how many municipalities there will be in total after the territorial reform, the minister did not answer with concrete figures, emphasizing not the quantity, but the quality that they should have.
