Introduction
Slovenia became a parliamentary republic when it gained its independence from Yugoslavia in June 1991. Slovenia has a bicameral parliament composed of the National Assembly (Državni zbor) and the National Council (Državni svet). The former is the general representative body of the Slovenian nation and exercises legislative and electoral powers, as well as control over the executive and judicial powers. The National Council is the representative body for social, economic, professional, and local interests. Slovenia has been a member of the European Union since 2004.
The Constitution, adopted in 1991, guarantees local self-government (Art. 9 and Art. 138 to 144). This paved the way for the creation of municipalities in October 1994, replacing socio-political communities. State functions previously carried out by former, territorially larger municipalities were delegated to administrative units, and local functions were taken over by the new bodies of the new municipalities.[1] The Local Self‑Government Act[2], adopted in 1993, governs municipalities as basic self-governing local communities in Slovenia.
Slovenia is thus a decentralised unitary state composed of devolved state administration units and municipalities. For development and statistical purposes, the country is divided into twelve statistical regions, which have no administrative function, and two cohesion regions: East Slovenia and West Slovenia. In 2006, the Constitution was amended in order to enable the establishment of regions. According to Article 143 of the Constitution, the state could transfer the performance of specific duties within the state competence to the regions and must provide them the necessary financial resources to enable this. However, the regions have not been established yet.
The devolved state administrative units, in total 58, ensure state responsibilities and manage affairs falling under the area of expertise of their respective ministries at regional level. They are headed by a head of the unit (načelnik upravne enote), appointed by the minister of public administration. However, these units do not have the status of local government.
Slovenia is composed of 212 municipalities, 11 of which have urban status.[3] According to Article 140 of the Constitution, the competencies of a municipality comprise local affairs (related to internal affairs, traffic, construction, agriculture, denationalization, victims of war violence, etc.), which may be regulated by the municipality autonomously and which affect only the residents of the municipality. State authorities supervise the legality of the work of local community authorities.
In 2019, municipal revenue amounted to EUR 2.23 billion.[4] Municipalities in Slovenia obtain their money from tax revenues, non-tax revenues, capital revenues, donations, transfers, and EU funds. Specifically, the Financing of Municipalities Act (2006, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2018)[5] stipulates that municipalities finance their activities from four major groups of revenues – their own tax revenues (revenues from inheritance and gift taxes, property taxes, taxes on real estate transactions, vessel tax, tax on winnings from conventional games of chance, and any other tax where so provided by the Act governing taxes), non-tax revenues (revenues from imposed contributions, dues, fines, concession fees, payments for public services, environmental fees prescribed on the basis of the act governing environmental protection for burdening of the environment with wastewater and disposal of waste), revenues from the management of municipal property and tangible financial assets, grants, and transferred revenues from the national budget and EU funds.
In 2019, tax revenue represented 69.76% of municipal revenue, non-tax revenues amounted to 17.13%, capital revenue to 2.42%, donations to 0.04%, transfers to 10.51%, and EU funds to 0.15%. Own‑sources (tax and non-tax) represented 86.89% of municipal revenue.[6]
Central level
The government has national legislative powers in all areas. Moreover, state authorities supervise the legality of the work of local community authorities.
Regional level
Article 143 of the Constitution (amended in June 2006) provides legal basis for establishing regions as a self-governing local community that manages local affairs of wider importance, and certain affairs of regional importance provided by law. Regions should be established by a law which also determines their territory, seat, and name. Such laws are adopted by the National Assembly. The participation of the municipalities must be guaranteed in the procedure of adopting the law.
The state transfers by law the performance of specific duties within the state competence to the regions and must provide them with the necessary financial resources to enable this.
Local level
Local matters of public interest as determined by law or by a municipality general act (Local Self-Government Act) are independently performed by the municipalities.
The responsibilities devolved to municipalities under Chapter 2, Article 13 and 21 of the Local Self-Government Act are the following:
- Fire fighting, and assistance and rescue services to help with natural disasters;
- Education (pre-school, primary, adult);
- Childminding facilities;
- Family and youth assistance;
- Rest homes;
- Social welfare;
- Housing;
- Urban planning;
- Spatial planning;
- Water, energy and sewage;
- Household refuse;
- Cemeteries;
- Environmental protection;
- Culture (libraries);
- Sport and leisure;
- Promotion of agriculture;
- Economic development of the municipality;
- Promotion of tourism;
- Management of municipal property;
- Construction and maintenance of local public roads
- Organisation of municipal warden services
Urban municipalities are allowed by law to have wider responsibilities than ordinary municipalities. Beside the abovementioned responsibilities, urban municipalities can have state responsibilities pertaining to urban development.
[1] https://www.gov.si/en/topics/municipalities-in-numbers/
[2] Official Gazette RS, Nos. 94/07, 76/08, 79/09, 51/10, 40/12, 14/15, 11/18, 30/18 and 61/20.
[3] Vlaj, S (2012) The System of Local Self-Government in Slovenia with a Special Emphasis on the Status of the Capital City Ljubljana, Croatian and Comparative Public Administration
[4] https://www.gov.si/assets/ministrstva/MF/Proracun-direktorat/DP-SSFLS/Proracuni-obcin/Realizacija/BILANCE-PR_OBC-15-19_v_EUR-arhiv.pdf
[5]Financing of Municipalities Act (Official Gazette RS, Nos. 123/06, 57/08, 36/11, 14/15, 71/17 and 21/18).
[6] Calculated as per data referred to footnote 3.
