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

Forms of Cooperation

Source: Wirth, Matschek: Interkommunale Zusammenarbeit, 2005; KDZ 2011.

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 schantl@kdz.or.at