Three neighbouring communes in Ungheni district are setting out on the same road: Bușila, Chirileni and Negurenii Vechi want to merge into a single administrative-territorial unit. The public-consultation process on the draft decision is under way, Bușila Mayoralty confirmed in an announcement on 10 July.
The three councils have already taken the first formal step, in spring. Chirileni commune’s council voted to initiate the amalgamation on 5 March, Bușila commune’s on 31 March, and Negurenii Vechi commune’s on 24 April — all three through decisions now in force in the State Register of Local Acts.
Why the merger: the 3,000 threshold
At its heart is the administrative reform that pushes the small mayoralties of the Republic of Moldova to merge, voluntarily, with their neighbours. The reference point is a threshold of 3,000 residents for an administrative-territorial unit — below it, a mayoralty is considered too small to sustain its services on its own.
None of the three communes reaches this threshold on its own. According to the 2024 census, Bușila has 1,301 residents, Chirileni 1,074, and Negurenii Vechi 1,158. Added together, the three make 3,533 residents — that is, together they cross the threshold that each, separately, does not reach.
What it would mean for people
A merger means a single mayoralty, a single mayor and a single council for all three localities, instead of the three administrations of today. Supporters of the reform say that a larger administration manages money more efficiently and can more easily access development projects. Behind the process there is also external support for the communes that choose to merge.
And this is exactly where the fear arises: for many residents, the village mayoralty means closeness — a place where you are known and which you can reach on foot. The idea of a single mayor for three villages raises the question of who then defends the interest of each locality in particular.
Two camps, at the same table
The debate is visible right under Bușila Mayoralty’s announcement. One resident, a woman, wrote that the amalgamation “must have at its centre the interest of citizens, access to quality services and the development of local communities” — support conditioned on how it is carried out.
Another resident was more sceptical and offered as a warning the case of an amalgamated commune in Fălești district, where, he says, a single mayor ends up covering four or five villages, and the villagers were reportedly left dissatisfied. It is the experience, as he relates it, of another community — not a verified conclusion about the future of the three villages in Ungheni, but exactly the kind of concern that the public consultation ought to weigh.
For now, the process is at the consultation stage. Once it ends, the councils of the three communes are to vote on the draft decision on the merger itself.
Update — 9 August 2026
The three councils moved from consultation to decision: all approved the merger. The Chirileni commune council adopted decision no. 4/2 and the Negurenii Vechi commune council decision no. 7/1, both on 29 July, while the Bușila commune council adopted decision no. 6/2 on 30 July — all published in the State Register of Local Acts. The commune of Bușila was chosen as the administrative centre of the new unit. The decisions are listed as in force and may be challenged within 30 days at the Ungheni Court.