Inter-municipal cooperation in Iceland Results from the survey 4th General COST-LocRef MC and WG Meeting Local Public Sector Reforms: An International Comparison (LocRef IS 1207) in Dubrovnik (Croatia), 05/06 May 2015 WGIII: Results from the IMC surveys. Date: May 5th 16.15-17.45 Dr. Grétar Þór Eyþórsson Professor in Methodology and Political Science. University of Akureyri, Iceland

Territorial structure * Based on an estimation from a survey in 2003. Estimation 2014: 7-10 IMC‘s pr. municipality

Amalgamation history Comprehensive reform attempts 1991-1993 and 2003-2005 Referendums in 185 in 1993 and in 66 in 2005 Only 1 new municipality But the number went down the voluntary way From 196 (1993) to 105 (2002) and 74 today But the problem is not solved yet Still a considerable part of the municipalities is to small To provide modern services for the people To provide services according to law To cope with regional development – losing people south...

Number of municipalities Referendum 1993 (185) Referendum 2005 (66) Grétar Þór Eyþórsson 2014

Municipal size historically

IMC in Iceland Inter-municipal entities (Byggðasamlög). Here the municipalities (most often in districts) join in an entity with a board with representatives from usually all. Social services, primary school expertise services, primary schools, fire brigades, bus transports, museums and regional tourism centres are the most frequent forms of this. Inter-municipal contracts. Here a contract about service provision is made between municipalities. Usually this is about one big municipality providing services to one or more, smaller neighbouring municipalities. Inter-Municipal Public Company. This is not frequent in Iceland but exists in the cases of power companies and water supply.

IMC in Iceland Regional economic development agencies (Atvinnuþróunarfélög). One such is run in every district. That means eight agencies all around the country. They work for common economic development for the district/region. This is usually done in cooperation between the municipalities and sometimes private companies are involved. The state grants money to these agencies. Associations of local authorities (Landshlutasamtök sveitarfélaga) Are run in the eight districts. They are voluntary and get no grants from the state. They work, just as the economic development agencies for the mutual interests of the municipalities.

Increasing interest in IMC instead of amalgamations… Figure 6. Icelandic local politicians on the statement: “We should go for inter-municipal cooperation rather than amalgamations.“ Results from surveys 2006 and 2011 (Balance Yes – No in %).

IMC survey in Iceland A sample of 50 entities Web-survey Criteria: The biggest and most comprehensive + with information on the web A complete mapping of IMC´s doesn‘t exist ...but I have been granted money to do it completely! In the sample: Handicap services, culture, garbage, fire brigade, regional federations of municipalities, regional economic development centres Web-survey Sent out 2. February and closed 3. March 37/49 ( 75,5%) responded (one had been discontinued)

Areas of cooperation realized within the entity

How many employees work for the Association?

How many meetings a year on the board of the Association?

Reasons behind establishing the Association? 59,5% The capacity problem is well known in Iceland, since many of the municipalities are so small.

Reasons behind establishing the Association Reasons behind establishing the Association? (Reasons others than mentioned above)

Who was the initiator of the Association?

Evaluation of the activeness of members of the Association?

Agree with statements about the IMC’s

IMC’s Effectiveness, equality and trust

Effectiveness, equality and trust in IMC´s

Effectiveness, equality and trust in IMC´s

How often do you contact following people within the daily work of the Association?

How are citizens informed about the activities of the Association? Webpages is the common Icelandic way to inform!

Interest of the individual groups in the activities of the Association and their municipalities? No wonder the interest is higher in own municipality but the interest in IMC seems to be fairly good.

Who usually are representatives of municipalities at the general assembly of your Association?

What are the effects of the Association’s activities? Solving the capacity problem and obtaining efficiency.

Changes in the activities of the IMC? Expansion to other areas is common. Developing incrementally into amalgamations?