While Norway has 357 municipalities, Slovakia, with a similar population size, has as many as 2,891. This fragmentation brings problems related to efficiency, low quality of services, and greater difficulty in resisting the pressure of interest groups. We looked into how three Norwegian municipalities that merged in recent years are handling this issue.
Tjøme is a popular holiday destination located within a Norwegian national park, just a 1.5-hour drive from the capital, Oslo. In the summer, its population of 4,900 swells to as many as 40,000, attracting many wealthy and influential Norwegians. Currently, over 2,200 holiday cabins are registered in the area. Norway’s King Harald and Queen Sonja built their summer residence there, and many others aspire to do the same. Although building is prohibited within 100 meters of the coastline, luxurious buildings continue to appear in the last decade.
“Powerful individuals have plenty of money to push their interests,” says Laila Rognaldsen, Director of the Department of Administration, Culture, and Social Care of Færder municipality, whom we met during a recent visit to Norwegian local governments. Tjøme is now part of Færder after the merger. “To be able to battle against officials and build what they dream of, they can afford the very best lawyers,” she adds. Even these days, Færder faces lawsuits with cottagers over building permits.
Corruption or a friendly favor?
In the past, things worked “a little” differently. In 2017, a corruption scandal erupted in Tjøme, making headlines across Norway. The local newspaper Tønsbergs Blad revealed that while the Norwegian government was tightening coastal protection rules, new villas, tennis courts, terraces, lawns, basements, swimming pools, and even a private harbor with a gas station appeared along Tjøme’s coast. “Nowhere in Norway had there been so many serious violations of building regulations documented in one place,” they reported.
The journalists uncovered not only illegal buildings but also structures that had received special exemptions from the building authority. The coastal construction ban does not apply if a structure is being renovated — even if it’s an old cabin, storage unit, or shack. Thus, an old fishing shed could be transformed into a luxury villa. According to the paper, there were systemic failures at the office, which relied on developers’ self-declared data and failed to inspect completed structures.
They also discovered personal connections behind the developments — an architect had designed a villa for the head of the building department, and shortly afterward, applications submitted by his firm were approved. Both men ended up in court.
“The defendants argued that the free services were indeed a friendly service, so the condition that it had occurred ‘in the exercise of official duties’ could not be met,” she adds,” explains Johanna Helene Berge of Transparency International Norway, who wrote her dissertation on the problem of ‘friendly favors.’
However, the court saw not only “friendship” but also corruption and sentenced both men to nine months in prison. This decision sparked a national debate in Norway about whether it is risky to become too close to public officials.
Transparency International Norway, in its guide Protect Your Municipality—an updated version of which will be introduced in Slovakia this April—flags such situations as risky. According to the guide, caution is advised if a senior employee or any staff member is friends with the service recipient or their relatives, or if they receive benefit offers. Another red flag is when the service is directly provided by a municipal employee and the recipient, without the involvement of others.
Why join forces
This brings us to a similar problem in Slovakia, where over 90 percent of the population lives in small municipalities with fewer than 3,000 residents — where “everyone knows everyone.” Local government departments are often composed of a single employee. The Supreme Audit Office of Slovakia has repeatedly highlighted issues such as low salaries, lack of experts, poor service delivery, mismanagement, and frequent violations of the law in small towns and villages.
An analysis by the Institute for Financial Policy (IFP) also shows that the smallest municipalities — those with fewer than 250 residents — spend more than half of their budgets on administration, at the expense of local development and quality services. According to IFP, the most efficient municipalities are those with between 20,000 and 50,000 residents, spending only 10% of their budget on administration.
In 2014, Tjøme decided to gain a more professional service by merging with the larger city of Nøtterøy (population 22,000). Since 2018, they have operated as Færder, with a combined population of 27,500.
“The new construction department in Færder was significantly more professional and better prepared than the one in the former Tjøme municipality. The department hired more lawyers, some of whom had previously worked for the county governor and were well-versed in building regulations,” wrote journalists from Tønsbergs Blad.
From the beginning, the new management of the municipality of Færder tried to check all construction cases and continues to inspect buildings that were not previously done. A special department was established to control illegal buildings, which regularly published a list of suspicious cases. Finally, Færder referred about 40 suspicious construction cases to the police.
Not just millions saved
Many Slovak municipalities also face construction-related issues, often accompanied by unethical practices. For example, in Marianka — a village of 2,300 residents near Bratislava — a court found that the mayor conditioned building permits on receiving gifts. Another mayor of Marianka clashed with developers and resigned after a series of incidents, including his car being set on fire. In 1996, the village held a referendum in favor of merging with Bratislava. However, under the law, Bratislava also had to approve the merger via a citywide referendum, which was deemed too expensive and challenging due to the need for a majority voter turnout.
Veľký Slavkov near the High Tatras, with only 1,500 residents, is also known for its land scandal during the second government of Robert Fico. Its mayor, Slavomír Pucci, also mentioned pressure from developers after his car was set on fire.
Civic activist Vladimír Špánik, founder of the ZOMOS civic association, believes that merging smaller municipalities could be a key tool for reducing local-level corruption in Slovakia. “There will never be order in Slovakia unless we restructure local governments and merge small villages. Merging would eliminate many issues and prevent theft and misconduct,” he said in a recent interview for Denník N.
Over the last decades, several European countries have tested reforms to improve municipal efficiency. Norway is a good example for Slovakia, given their similar population sizes. Norway’s reform, approved in 2014, aimed to ensure equal standards across all municipalities. Today, Norway has 357 municipalities — compared to Slovakia’s 2,891.
Many Slovak municipalities already share services — for example, there are only 970 registry offices for nearly 3,000 municipalities. If just these merged, the IFP estimated in 2017 that Slovakia could save €181 million annually — money that could instead go toward local development. It’s not just about EU fund absorption, but also about facing challenges such as an aging population needing care and the outmigration of young and educated people to cities.
How to do it: The Norwegian recipe
THE LITTLE BROTHER PHENOMENON:
If someone in Slovakia seriously proposed merging municipalities again, one of the first questions would be whether the smaller town would be disadvantaged. We asked about this in Asker, a affluent suburb 20 kilometers from Oslo where residents enjoy a rural atmosphere while commuting to the capital for work, and it has even attracted several Norwegian celebrities.
The original Asker (61,500 residents) merged in 2020 with the smaller towns of Røyken (9,500) and Hurum (22,000). Despite their size differences, each had equal representation in the 9-member merger commission. “All three municipalities had equal representation in the committee. We trusted each other and set aside our partisan differences,” explains Asker’s mayor, Lene Conradi. The committee, which agreed on a joint memorandum, also involved councilors from all three former councils who worked on specific tasks within various committees.
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION:
We were also curious how they handled proportional representation in the local council. In Asker, local branches of political parties merged before the elections and created a joint candidate list. In Slovakia, the situation is different, as over 40% of local council members are elected as independents. Proportional representation would need to be addressed differently, perhaps by allocating council seats to specific city districts. The new trend of forming local political parties may also play a role.
JOB LOSS:
Merging is often associated with fears of layoffs. Slovak local governments employ about 200,000 people. “Everyone found a new job — we promised no one would lose their position or salary,” officials in Asker told us, where employees were involved in planning the merger. Departures were described as natural. In Indre Østfold, a town near the Swedish border with 47,000 residents, formed by merging five municipalities, they even praised the ability to substitute for one another during illnesses. According to Slovakia’s IFP, fewer offices could allow transferring staff to new services and hiring more qualified personnel.
LOSS OF ROLES:
But what about mayors who would lose their posts and power? In Slovakia, where some mayors act like absolute rulers, this could be a problem. In Asker, voters decided: one former mayor became head of the new municipality, another became deputy mayor, and the third left politics.
SERVICE ACCESSIBILITY:
Mergers didn’t mean local services disappeared. In Indre Østfold, each municipality kept its town hall. None were shuttered; all are still used for public services.
PRESERVING TRADITIONS:
One of the most sensitive issues was preserving local traditions and culture. Mergers didn’t mean combining football clubs. Norwegian municipalities emphasized working with communities. During mergers, they organized events to foster community bonds and strengthen local identity. Mergers happened only when the majority supported them in surveys. In Færder, people even voted on the new town name.
GOALS ACHIEVED:
Mergers can bring not just financial efficiency but also reduce corruption and abuse of power. The municipalities we visited had only recently merged, so it’s early for a full evaluation — but the first results are visible. One shared goal was to ensure equal services for all residents. In Indre Østfold, they worked to eliminate disparities between the five former municipalities. “Some of the municipalities had weaker economies – which resulted in different qualities of the municipal services. Today, everyone is more or less equal,” says Deputy Mayor Kathrine Hestoe Hansen.
Færder aimed to harmonize citizen fees with service levels. In Asker, waste and wastewater costs decreased. They reported stronger innovation, higher private investment, and a more effective fight against fjord pollution.
Where did the reform in Slovakia get stuck?
Municipal reform that would allow mergers of the smallest towns has been discussed in Slovakia for at least 20 years. In 2005, Viktor Nižňanský, the government’s commissioner for decentralization, proposed mergers of small towns with larger ones, but faced political resistance. The case of Marianka shows that without legal changes, such mergers are nearly impossible.
Norway’s parliament approved reform in 2014, and shortly afterward, municipalities began deciding on mergers. In Slovakia, this issue has not featured in government priorities or programs, despite repeated calls from studies and analyses. The Slovak law on municipal governance does allow for mergers, but it requires a local referendum and mutual agreement. There have been past examples of such mergers — for example, during the 1970s, the number of municipalities dropped by 366. In 1930, there were 3,479 municipalities; today there are 2,891.
The current Slovak government has announced plans for public administration reform, including reducing the number of regions and districts. However, strengthening their competencies and creating legal incentives for municipal mergers would be more meaningful. According to the IFP estimate mentioned earlier, this would bring significantly greater results. That analysis is now eight years old and has been available to multiple governments.
Delaying reform will only continue to entrench the persistent problems at the local level, which the Supreme Audit Office regularly warns about. Norway’s approach shows that top-down mandates are unnecessary — successful reform came from the municipalities themselves, motivated by shared goals, with the state merely creating the legal framework.
Martina Hilbertová
This blog was created as part of the project “Bridging Differences: Sharing Experience to Improve Governance and Reduce Corruption at the Municipal Level” with the support of the Ministry of Investment, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic as the national contact point of the Fund for Bilateral Relations, co-financed from the EEA and Norway Grants 2014–2021.
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