LPSA Expert Working Group on Europe & Central Asia – Open Meeting – November 2025

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.

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.