Universities reflect on administrative reform of parishes based on the case of the Algarve

Within the framework of the partnership between the Coordination and Regional Development Commission (CCDR) of the Algarve and the Interdisciplinary Center for Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA), of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences (NOVA FCSH), NOVA University of Lisbon, and the Research in Architecture, Urbanism and Design (CIAUD), from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, the article “Administrative Reform of Portuguese Parishes 2013. Reflections from the case of the Algarve” was recently published in the online magazine “Cidade, Comunidades e Territories”.

The article discusses the territorial reform of Portuguese parishes in 2013 as part of the rescue agreement of the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission (Troika) to the Portuguese State, following the sovereign debt crisis.

In a note, CCDR Algarve explains that the article aims to “frame the reform of parishes in Portugal in the trends of reorganization at the local level in European countries in recent decades; place aggregation on a national scale, integrating it into the Local Administration Reform of the 2011th Government (2015-XNUMX); to analyze, from the Algarve, the changes in the exercise of its competences, in the provision of services to the population and in the relationship with the municipality; discuss the results achieved”.

The methodology is based on a review of the literature on local territorial reforms in European countries, on a critical reading of the national process, with the empirical approach based on the perspective of those elected, based on semi-structured interviews with all the presidents of the councils of parishes aggregated in the Algarve .

« The aggregation process top down applied in the country triggered a reaction of sharing and collaboration between parishes in the region, attenuating tensions and fractures between communities (but, in other situations, exposing old divisions or fractures). The new map is assimilated, but criticisms remain and two reversals have already occurred», explains the CCDR.