Administrative Organization in Several European States: Territorial Levels and the Distribution of Competences According to their Constitutions

Abstract

The study of the organization and models of public administration in all their complexity has become more and more extensive and reached deeper levels of analysis and understanding. The European Commission has emphasized on various occasions the importance of knowing better the characteristic features of the public administrative systems of the member states in order to adopt and apply the necessary legislative acts, measures and strategies to ensure an enhanced coordination between the EU and its members. Although there is no single model of public administration or a unique administrative framework which is the same for all the EU countries, the EU makes efforts at coordinating and harmonizing both legislation and policies in the administrative domain. Its various actions point into the direction of encouraging governments to increase their efficiency and adopt the needed reforms to comply with EU’s regulatory framework and policies but also to develop their administrative capacity. The organization of local public administration, as the closest level to the citizens, is established in accordance with the principles of the fundamental law or Constitution and with the state’s legislation. The analysis of these provisions reveals the existence of a great variety of modes of organization and of various ways of sharing the competences between the central and local levels of public administration. Despite this huge diversity, states can be grouped in several classes using the criterion of the levels of public administration and of the accomplishment of competences between these levels.