Local self-government; information

This right to self-government entails, firstly, that the bodies acting on behalf of the municipality (the mayor and the municipal council) are elected by the citizens themselves in general, equal, direct, free and secret elections. Above all, the right to self-government also means that the municipality carries out its duties independently and on its own responsibility within the scope of its own sphere of activity, without instructions from higher authorities.

The essential characteristics of the municipality’s right to local self-government are

• territorial sovereignty, i.e. sovereignty over the municipal territory,
• the authority to enact bylaws, i.e. the authority of the municipality to regulate its own affairs by enacting bylaws on its own responsibility,
• organisational sovereignty, i.e. the right of the municipality to determine its own internal organisation as it sees fit,
• administrative sovereignty, i.e. the right of the municipality to issue the administrative acts necessary for the implementation of laws, ordinances and statutes within the framework of the statutory regulations and, if necessary, to enforce them by force,
• the authority to select, hire, promote and dismiss its own staff,
• financial and fiscal sovereignty, i.e. the right of the municipality to regulate its own finances within the framework of the law,
• as well as planning sovereignty, i.e. the power to organise structural development in the municipality.

As part of the state structure, local authorities are subject to state supervision. The purpose of state supervision is to monitor the legality of local authorities’ administrative activities and, in the case of tasks delegated to them by the state (delegated powers), also their appropriateness. The purpose of state supervision is to provide the municipalities with sympathetic advice, support and protection in the performance of their duties, and to strengthen the decision-making capacity and personal responsibility of municipal bodies. Supervisory intervention is at the discretion of the state supervisory authority. As bodies

governed by public law, municipalities are legal persons and thus have legal capacity and are parties to legal proceedings. A municipality may therefore, for example, acquire assets, be appointed as an heir, act as a contracting party under private law and be a debtor in respect of liabilities.