In fact, this decision – to radically change the structure of 10 municipalities at some point in the distant future – is a clumsy attempt to appease the Constitutional Court. The court has ruled that the municipalities created during the last administrative-territorial reform without development centres do not meet the goal of the reform. The deadline for correcting this error is 1 January. Therefore, simply postponing the decision to merge municipalities with centres is not enough; a concrete deadline must be set. But a sufficiently distant one, so as not to cause politically and economically harmful consequences in the foreseeable future.

A centre is also unofficially a centre

Of course, even with such a decision, the reaction of the Constitutional Court is unknown. But at least the municipalities and their residents would be guaranteed eight years of relatively stable life. What will happen after that may be shown by the examples of Valmiera and Jēkabpils. These cities have already been merged with their surrounding municipalities. Meanwhile, Daugavpils, Jelgava, Liepāja, Rēzekne, Ventspils, and their adjacent municipalities managed to maintain their independence during the last reform. That is, if not for the ruling of the Constitutional Court.

The arguments as to why these state cities and their adjacent municipalities do not wish to merge were discussed extensively during the previous administrative-territorial reform process. There are plenty of them – and the cities even threatened to turn to the Constitutional Court if their independence were forcibly removed. In the end, the Saeima and the ministry gave in. However, it was precisely the Constitutional Court that caused a problem that seemed to have been resolved to be made an issue again. Such municipalities without a centre must not exist. It is clear that the nearest large city is the actual centre for the residents of the surrounding municipalities. There are many shops, services, relatives, friends, and acquaintances there. At the same time, the lifestyle and rhythm are completely different, as are social provision and development goals. And that is why it is perhaps not useful to turn an actual centre into a legal and formal centre.