LPSA’s Expert Working Group (EWG) on Europe & Central Asia (ECA) aims to bring together government officials, policy practitioners, scholars, civil society organizations, and citizens who share an interest and expertise on decentralization, multilevel governance, intergovernmental relations, local governance and local development in ECA.
The next public meeting of the ECA Expert Working Group is scheduled to take place on November 12, 2025 (10:00 EST/ 15:00 GMT/ 16:00 CET/ 20:00 UZT).
Registration is required for this meeting. Register here!
The focus of the upcoming meeting will be on: “The Visible Hand: Challenges in the Management of Municipally Owned Enterprises Providing Local Public Services“
Utility services, such water and sanitation, energy and transport, or waste management and other communal services go through transformation in these years. The former market oriented liberal economic policies of the 1990s resulted transfer of assets and transformation of municipally owned enterprises. Lack of effective regulatory institutions and competition culture often created private monopolies.
Following this period of marketization and corporatisation, alternative government policies emerged. In some services national government intervened by limiting the ownership rights of local self-governments and municipally owned enterprises lost their privileges to centrally delegated holders of particular functions. Rather than the invisible hand of the market, it is the will of the state that becomes more detectable.
This webinar aims to contribute to the debate on the transformation of local public service management and especially the future status of municipally owned enterprises.
| Agenda Item | Contributor |
| 1. Welcome and introduction | Gabor Peteri ECA Working Group Co-Chair |
| 2. Local corporatization: A vehicle with different intentions across the world | Dr. Bart Voorn Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Management, Radboud University, Netherlands |
| 3. Resilient Public Ownership: The Austrian Approach to Managing and Financing Local Services of General Interest Q&A, Disussion | Jeremias Jobst MA MSc (WU), Team Lead & Policy Advisor – Housing, Mobility, Economic Affairs, Sustainable Finance and Funding, Association of Public Services and Enterprises Austria (VÖWG) Participants Facilitation: Gabor Peteri |
4. Strengthening or weakening local governance? Recentralisation in municipal solid waste management and the draft legislation on Local Public Enterprises in Albania Q&A, Disussion | Dr. Valbona Karakaçi Western Balkan Regional Governance Advisor, HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Albania Arben Kopliku SWM Component manager, HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Albania Participants Facilitation: Gabor Peteri |
| 5. The changing role of corporatisation in the provision of local public services, Hungary Q&A, Disussion | Tamás M. Horváth Professor of Financial Law and Public Management, University of Debrecen, Hungary Participants Facilitation: Gabor Peteri |
| 6. Closing remarks & Next steps for the working group | Gabor Peteri |
We need your help to make this meeting a success: If you have any updates about decentralization or local governance reforms in your country; updates about new research; or information about local government projects that you would like mentioned during the open meeting, please email the Working Group co-chairs at eca@decentralization.net so that a brief announcement can be made at the beginning of the meeting.
Reminder: You can join any LPSA Expert Working Group free of cost and receive reminders and updates by opting-in to one or more working groups as part of your LPSA Membership registration.
