Twenty Years of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in Slovenia

Abstract

In the approximately two and a half decades since 1990, Slovenia has undergone a series of unprecedented historical events and has often been characterised as a success story. In the field of local self-government, major legal changes occurred several years before the ratification of the ECLSG. Nevertheless, these changes were already in line with this document. The paper focuses on the assessment of the development of Slovenian local self-government in the light of ECLSG’s provisions on subsidiarity and financial autonomy. As to the first, it may be concluded that, according to internationally established quantitative indicators of decentralisation, Slovenia belongs to the group of centralised states. The share of local (subnational) expenditure as a share of total public expenditure is at around 20%, while the share of local (subnational) expenditure as a share of GDP accounts for approximately 10%. General government employment as a percentage of total employment is at around 17%, of which only 24% are local employees. As to the second, the Slovenian Constitution goes beyond the requirements of the ECLSG on financial resources; however, the legislative implementation of these provisions has always been problematic. In general, the autonomy of municipalities on the expenditure side is much better than on the revenue side. Given the situation of public finances in Slovenia and global development trends, with the increasing complexity of local governance, major shifts in the municipal finance model cannot be expected, especially not in the direction of providing significantly higher financial autonomy or a significantly higher volume of own tax resources. However, it is important to upgrade the system towards the redistribution of existing tax resources between the state and local units by strengthening the elements of the tax autonomy of municipalities. Based on all of the above, it may be concluded that Slovenia is having difficulty with the implementation of both the principle of subsidiarity and principle of financial autonomy. A look behind the curtain therefore relativises the “success story” label.