“The administrative reform has been waiting for its implementation for 20 years. It is needed by all the regions and all the residents of the country,” said the Prime Minister after the government’s meeting in summer 2017. “We are now at the most difficult and crucial stage.”

The first part of this phrase could well be heard in Ukraine, though it is not about us, but about another state. This is a quote from the speech of Jüri Ratas, Estonian Prime Minister.

A few years ago, the situation in Estonia in this area resembled Ukrainian one. Here are just a few features:

- small communities with no chance to become capable, but with the powers of a city with one hundred thousand residents;

- resistance of mayors-longtimers to reforms (yes, this is not only our problem!);

- focus on a “voluntary association”, that sometimes seemed like a simulation of the reform;

- Russian factor as a brake of the reform ...

Though recently, there has appeared a significant difference between Ukraine and Estonia in the issue of administrative-territorial reform. Tallinn decided on a step that was previously called inadmissible: the government announced that they were moving to a forced amalgamation of communities.

“The European truth” has already told about the experience of carrying out a similar reform in Latvia. Now you can get acquainted with the Estonian experience that is much more successful and, of course, useful for Ukraine.

The full version is available in Ukrainian – please click on «Українською».