“I don't think that the instrument of amalgamation of localities will be supported by many local elected officials,” said the mayor of Cahul municipality Nicolae Dandiș, according to whom even if the authorities have planned a 150 million lei fund for amalgamation of localities for 2024, this money will not be capitalized. The mayor noted that there are many small localities in the vicinity of Cahul municipality, but he is not sure that the members of local councils will decide to merge them with Cahul municipality, IPN reports

According to the law, amalgamation involves the voluntary union of two or more localities in order to strengthen their administrative capacity and provide high-quality public services to citizens. The mayor of Cahul believes that few localities will use the instrument of amalgamation.

“The amalgamation process is a testing tool. The 150 million lei earmarked in the budget for this process are not capitalized. I haven’t seen many localities to use this instrument. The methodology of this amalgamation process was published only last week. I don’t know how many mayors have read the methodology. It has 128 points and they are very interesting, but they are unlikely to be applied. It is good that this instrument exists, but we will see that it will not be widely supported,” Nicolae Dandiș stated in the program “Reflection Points” on Vocea Basarabiei station.

Asked if the localities in the vicinity of Cahul municipality would be ready to merge, the mayor noted that this decision belongs to the local councils.

“We have localities that are in the vicinity. We are going to discuss this thing with local councils in rural areas. I don’t think everyone will rush to carry out this process. They will analyze things to see if they can capitalize on some funds, including special purpose transfers, and will put these advantages on the scale. It is just a tool. We will see what the local councils believe. Cahul municipality is a growth pole, a regional center. It is normal to have a growing administrative area. But to what extent neighboring localities agree to amalgamate is up to local councils. I don’t think this tool will be used often,” said Nicolae Dandiș.

Under the law, if two or more localities decide to merge, the Government will support this process, and during seven years will allocate money for infrastructure development and for supporting the budgets of amalgamated localities.