Estonia

In the light of the 1992 Constitution, Estonia is a unitary state (Art. 2)9. The territorial organization is two-tier:
● 64 rural municipalities (vald) and 15 urban municipalities (linn). As of January 2021, the smallest municipality of Estonia, Ruhnu (an island in the Baltic Sea, belonging to the Saare region), has 140 inhabitants, and the largest, Tallinn, has 438,341 people.
● 15 counties (maakonnad). These are state administration units that constitute a decentralized level of central government. They are not local governments, 9 Constitution of the Republic of Estonia, https://www.president.ee/en/ republic-of-estonia/the-constitution/index.html [15.04.2022]. do not have separately elected representative bodies or other significant independent competences. Till the end of 2017 each county had its own county government (maavalitsus) headed by a county governor (maavanem). A county governor was appointed by the central government and represented it at the regional level. After the 2017 administrative-territorial reform their tasks were transferred to central ministries, other government bodies (like agencies) or municipalities. Thus, there is no regional level of local government in Estonia, and municipalities are the only level of local government.

Currently, there are no partners from Estonia in the Network yet. We are open to joining new members.