THE FUTURE OF CZECH MUNICIPALITIES BETWEEN AMALGAMATION AND INTER-MUNICIPAL COOPERATION?

Alongside France, Italy and Slovakia the Czech Republic belongs to the countries with the most fragmented municipal structure. The aim of this paper is to analyze the attitudes of representatives of the Czech municipalities to two ideal forms of consolidation of the structure: amalgamation of the municipalities and inter-municipal cooperation. It is based on the survey results, which took place in the summer of 2015, which was attended by 573 municipalities and towns. The research has shown that the representatives of the Czech municipalities significantly prefer inter-municipal cooperation. In the case of amalgamation of the municipalities they are primarily afraid of loss of identity of the merging municipalities. As shown by foreign experience, to encourage inter-municipal cooperation it is necessary to access conceptually (model), with respect to its objectives and tasks, financing method, the territorial reach and organizational and legal structures. More than 54% of the municipalities assess existing government support as insufficient and they lack a specific national or regional support programs. Free choice of partners and voluntary participation in the cooperation are considered key factors of a successful inter-municipal cooperation. Although particularly the small municipalities are very sensitive to the mention of merging municipalities, we would not have to resign to debate the pros and cons of merging the municipalities into the future.