1. Inter-municipal Cooperation in Austria Status Quo & Developments
Alexandra Schantl, KDZ-Centre for Public Administration, Vienna

2. Austria Key Information
Austria is a federation of 9 provinces (“Bundesländer”)
2359 municipalities
Vienna has a special regulation in the constitution and is province (“Bundesland”) and a municipality together

3. Structure of Municipalities
Municipalities have between less than 100 and more than 1,6 Mio. (Vienna) inhabitants
Nearly half of the 2357 municipalities have between und inhabitants and 84 % between 500 and 5.000
73 municipalities have more than inhabitants, from these have 7 more than ; the 2nd largest city is Graz ( )

4. Structure of Municipalities
Every municipality must have a municipal council, a managing board and a mayor (Federal Constitution)
The electoral period of the municipal councils is from 5 to 6 years (different legal regulations in each “Bundesland”)
The number of members depends on the number of inhabitants
Mayors are elected by the municipal council, in some provinces directly by the citizens

5. Own Municipal Competences 1
The self-government is part of the Federal Constitution.
The most important topics are:
appointment of the municipal bodies,
appointment of the municipal staff
local public safety administration; local events control;
administration of municipal traffic areas; local traffic police;
crops protection police;
local market police;

6. Own Municipal Competences 2
local sanitary police, especially in the field of emergency and first aid services, as well as matters pertaining to deaths and burial;
public decency;
local building police, excluding federal-owned buildings which serve public purposes; local fire control; local development (environmental) planning;
public services for extrajudicial settlement of disputes;
debtors’ sale of goods;

7. Own Municipal Competences 3
economic activities like:
waste
water and waste water
Energy (not always)
municipal housing
leisure facilities
The supervisory authority in the provinces can only become active in case of unlawful activities of a municipality.

8. Delegated Competences
Implement and execute duties related to state administration, which are assigned:
elections
plebiscites and referendums
Citizenship issues: municipal records of all persons of Austrian nationality and the register of marriages, births and deaths
domicile registration
protection of water and waterways
safety precautions against diseases
statistical surveys

9. Inter-municipal Cooperation Status Quo
Long tradition in inter-municipal cooperation
Not fully recorded
Different reasons to co-operate (legal obligation versus voluntary initiatives)
Generally all municipal tasks/services can be carried out inter-municipally

10. Inter-municipal Cooperation Status Quo
The support of inter-municipal cooperation differs from province to province both in money terms and non-monetary services.
In general only the developement/ establishment and management of an inter-municipal cooperation is public co-financed, not the cooperation-activities itself.

11. Cooperation fields
Most inter-communal cooperation in the following areas:
Supply and disposal (e.g. water and waste)
Regional developement and tourism
Sport and leisure infrastructure (swimming pools, sport halls, event centres..)
Social services (social welfare associations, retirement homes..)

12. Cooperation fields
Schools (elementary and middle schools, residential accomodation for pupils)
Single governing powers areas (municipal housing inspectorate, municipal registry of births, marriages and deaths…)
Internal administrative services like purchases, accounting…
Very limited cooperation in the area of rescue and fire services

13. Forms of Cooperation Cooperation form depends on the tasks and duties
Range from informal and non or small institutionalized cooperation until strong/high institutionalized cooperation

14. Forms of Cooperation
Source: Wirth, Matschek: Interkommunale Zusammenarbeit, 2005; KDZ 2011.

15. Examples www.verwaltungskooperation.at Adventure Swimming Area Frutzau
INKOBA

16. Developments
Increasing awareness of the importance of inter-municipal cooperation
Increasing willingness to cooperate and decreasing competition between the single municipalities
Inter-municipal cooperation or merching of municipalities?
Focus on „city-region“ cooperation

17. Thank you very much for your attention!
Contact: Alexandra Schantl KDZ-Centre for Public Administration Research Tel