Across many democracies, there is growing recognition that successful reforms depend not only on institutional and legislative change but also on meaningful public participation, broad societal legitimacy and citizen trust. This broader trend is particularly relevant in the context of the Republic of Moldova’s EU accession process. The opening of the Fundamentals Cluster in Moldova’s EU accession negotiations on 15 June highlights that the enlargement process extends well beyond legislative alignment. It is equally about strengthening democratic governance, building accountable institutions and ensuring that reforms are informed by meaningful citizen participation.
The Citizens’ Assembly on Local Public Administration (LPA) Reform provides a timely example of how deliberative democracy can contribute to complex governance reforms in the context of EU enlargement. Hosted by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova and organised in cooperation with the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) and the Centre for Policies and Reforms (CPR Moldova), the Assembly brought together 50 randomly selected citizens representing the country’s diversity in terms of age, gender, region and language. Over two weekends, participants heard evidence from experts, questioned public officials, debated among themselves and ultimately adopted 15 recommendations, each requiring the support of at least 70% of participants to ensure broad consensus.
The recommendations that emerged provide valuable insight into how informed citizens think about public administration, decentralisation and democratic governance. With the Government’s Concept of reform now before Parliament, the recommendations offer practical guidance on citizens’ priorities, implementation challenges and safeguards that could help ensure the reform is both effective and responsive to local realities.
A broadly constructive approach to deliberation
A striking feature of the Citizens’ Assembly was the tone of the discussions. Participants did not spend much time debating the principle of LPA reform. Instead, they concentrated on the practical questions of how to make it fair, transparent and effective. The recommendations suggest that participants recognised the potential benefits of modernising local governance but also identified a number of conditions necessary for success. These include ensuring equitable resource distribution, protecting smaller communities and minority groups, investing in infrastructure that connects newly amalgamated communities, preserving cultural infrastructure, ensuring access to public services, and safeguarding meaningful local representation. Citizens focused on identifying safeguards and implementation measures that would make reform fairer, more effective and more inclusive. This reflects a sophisticated understanding that successful governance reform is not about preserving existing structures but about improving outcomes for communities.
The Assembly offered a sophisticated understanding that successful governance reform is not about preserving existing structures but about improving outcomes for communities. The Assembly therefore offers a powerful lesson for the enlargement process: when citizens are informed and genuinely involved, they become constructive partners rather than obstacles to reform.
Fairness emerged as the Assembly’s central organising principle
Across all fifteen recommendations, equity stands out as the common thread. The first three recommendations all seek to prevent smaller or disadvantaged communities from being penalised by amalgamation. Participants proposed state financial support for localities unable to amalgamate voluntarily, legally guaranteed proportional distribution of resources within newly merged municipalities, and targeted assistance for villages wishing to amalgamate but rejected by larger neighbours. This revealed that citizens evaluate reform according to whether it distributes opportunities fairly across territories and not at the cost of territorial cohesion or equal treatment.
Citizens think in terms of services and representation, not administrative maps
Participants consistently focused on concrete outcomes affecting daily life. The recommendation calling for the state to finance roads connecting amalgamated localities illustrates this perspective. Citizens understood that larger municipalities may improve administrative capacity only if accompanied by investments ensuring that residents can actually reach schools, public services facilities, public offices and economic opportunities. Similarly, the recommendation to expand Unified Public Service Centres (CUPS) and mobile public services demonstrates that participants judge governance reform by its capacity to improve service delivery, not simply reorganising institutions.. This aligns closely with the principles for citizen-centred public administration, where accessibility and quality of services are key indicators of reform success.
Public communication and transparency viewed as a prerequisite for successful reform
Among the Assembly’s strongest recommendations is the call for a comprehensive public information strategy. Participants expressed concern that many citizens currently lack accessible, understandable information about local administration reform. Participants envisioned a multi-channel approach using simple language, printed materials, digital tools, SMS messages, public meetings, youth engagement and local social media. This emphasis suggests that participants understand reform implementation as a participatory process rather than a top-down exercise. They recognise that public understanding reduces misinformation, strengthens trust and enables citizens to make informed decisions about changes affecting their communities.
Minority rights and inclusion should be integral to the reform
The recommendations reveal a shared conception for inclusive governance. Participants called for reform-related information to be available in the languages spoken by Moldova’s ethnic communities, as effective participation requires linguistic accessibility. Participants also suggested giving special consideration to some geographically isolated localities with large ethnic minority populations when applying the rules on amalgamation. More broadly, they stressed that the reform should respect Moldova’s cultural and linguistic diversity and ensure that no community feels excluded from the process or its outcomes. These proposals indicate that citizens do not perceive administrative efficiency and cultural diversity as competing objectives. Instead, they view inclusive governance as a necessary condition for successful reform and social cohesion. In the broader context of EU accession, this resonates strongly with European values concerning minority protection, non-discrimination and participatory democracy.
Democratic representation matters
Participants repeatedly expressed concern that amalgamation could weaken representation for smaller villages and recommend institutional safeguards ensuring that every community continues to have an effective voice. Recommendations include creating clearly defined locality representatives, reforming electoral rules to ensure proportional representation, encouraging independent candidates from smaller settlements and guaranteeing transparency through livestreamed council meetings, rotating council sessions and outreach visits to constituent localities. These proposals demonstrate that participants expect reform to strengthen democratic accountability – as efficiency alone is insufficient if citizens feel disconnected from decision-making.
Protecting local identity while modernising governance
Several recommendations focus on preserving cultural infrastructures, including libraries, museums and community centres, and ensuring continued investment in local cultural life following amalgamation. This reflects an important insight often overlooked in administrative reform debates: local and cultural identity matter to citizens. Participants clearly agree that institutional modernisation should not come at the expense of community heritage or cultural participation and for modernised governance to preserve the social fabric of local communities.
Economic justice is central to public legitimacy
The Assembly also devoted attention to fiscal arrangements. Participants worried that amalgamation with larger urban areas could trigger sudden increases in local taxes and therefore proposed differentiated taxation mechanisms reflecting local economic conditions. They also recommended redirecting personal income tax revenues according to residents’ place of residence rather than employer registration, enabling communities to benefit more directly from the economic activity of their inhabitants. These recommendations reveal a nuanced understanding of fiscal decentralisation and suggest that citizens see budgetary fairness as essential for maintaining confidence in reform.
A tool for accession reform
The Citizens’ Assembly offers important lessons beyond local government reform itself. EU accession requires extensive legislative alignment, but lasting transformation depends on whether reforms enjoy public understanding and legitimacy. Deliberative processes like Citizens’ Assemblies help bridge this gap by creating informed spaces where citizens can examine evidence, challenge assumptions, understand trade-offs and formulate balanced recommendations.
As Moldova advances towards European Union membership, the experience suggests that Citizens’ Assemblies can strengthen both the ownership and effectiveness of accession-related reforms. This experience demonstrates that randomly selected citizens, when provided with balanced information and sufficient time, are capable of producing sophisticated and constructive policy proposals that closely align with many of the governance principles underpinning European integration: transparency, subsidiarity, inclusion, accountability, fairness and citizen participation. This experience also reflects a broader evolution in democratic practice across Europe. In 2023, the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation on deliberative democracy, the first international standard dedicated to this form of citizen participation. The Recommendation recognises that deliberative processes can complement representative democracy and sets out principles such as fair representation, informed participation, transparency, accountability and evaluation to guide their design and implementation.
The Citizens’ Assembly has been hosted by the Parliament of Moldova and organised in cooperation with EPD and CPR Moldova with funding from the European Union through the “INSPIRED Moldova” project and from the Government of Sweden through the “Strategic Partnership Approach to a Conducive Environment (SPACE) Initiative”. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the European Union or Government of Sweden.
