Report on National Conference
Preparing Croatia’s regions for the Structural Funds: Opportunities and Challenges
Summary of the RDCBF-visibility event, held 16 May 2008 in Zagreb
With this title the Ministry of Regional Development, Forestry and Water Management and the Delegation of the European Commission organized a Conference in Hotel Antunović in Zagreb on 16 May 2008. The conference took place in the context of the EU-funded CARDS 2004 project Regional Development Capacity Building Facility that is managed by ECORYS Research and Consulting.
The conference attracted almost 220 policy makers, civil servants, practitioners, and/or experts from various ministries, counties, towns and municipalities, non-governmental agencies, and consultancies.
Speeches were delivered by Vice Premier Uzelac, Minister of Regional Development Čobanković, Head of EC-Delegation Degert, State Secretary of Regional Development Janic, representatives from Croatian counties, and experts from (new) EU-Member States.
The objective of the conference was to present and discuss the forthcoming activities related to regional development of the Croatian Government, with special emphasis on the preparations for EU-cohesion policy in relation to Croatia’s regions.
PROGRAMME
Morning session
The morning session contained the following speeches and presentations:
• Vice Premier Uzelac pointed out that the preparation for EU-accession is one of the key priorities of the new Government of Croatia. He made it clear that this will require huge efforts in preparing new policies, legislation, structures and procedures, and adopt existing ones. However, these changes are worthwhile as this will lead to considerable benefits and welfare for Croatian society.
• Minister Čobanković outlined the main components of the revised draft National Strategy for Regional Development/Law for Regional Development (NSRD/LRD). He presented the instruments of the strategy, with special focus on the NUTS2/wider region element and how this links to the operating structures of the NSRD/LRD and those under the Structural Funds. He clearly indicated that in the coming months the revised NSRD/LRD will be extensively discussed with other relevant ministries and various stakeholders in the regions of Croatia, on the basis of which the NSRD/LRD will be sent for approval to the Croatian Government and Parliament;
• H.E. Degert placed the preparations for EU-cohesion policy in the broader context of EU-accession and the solidarity between regions and social groups. He stressed 3 important elements in the field of regional policy: a) establishing a proper functioning national regional planning process, b) setting up transparent and efficient implementation and legislative systems; and c) effective absorption of development funds. For each of elements further progress was required in his view, with a need to achieve all of this in partnership with all relevant development actors in Croatia:
• Mr Adam Kullmann and Mr Jurij Kobal presented important lessons from Hungary and Slovenia. Especially the step change from EU-accession to -membership was outlined which requires special actions in relation to building and retaining a pool of well trained and efficient managers, civil servants, beneficiaries and also consultants. It is also important to programme the use of the available EU funds in such a way as to maximize their impact. Deputy Prefects Kulić (Vukovar) and Otočan (Istria) showed the variety of actions that have been and are being undertaken in some of the regions of Croatia in order to strengthen their socio-economic situation, also in the perspective of and enlarged Europe.
Afternoon session
The afternoon session, attended by approximately 140 people, focused more specifically on the activities that the Ministry of Regional Development, Forestry and Water Management will be undertaking towards the regions of Croatia, partly in the context of the Regional Development Capacity Building Facility project:
• State Secretary Janić elaborated in more detail how the NSRD/LRD will be functioning in relation to the EU-Structural Funds and what will be the roles and responsibilities of the various institutions involved. He made it clear that this would require considerable capacity building activities in these institutions in order to be able to meet the EU-requirements and to create an efficient and transparent process of management and implementation;
• Mr. Robert Smith from the RDCBF project team presented what had already been undertaken in the RDCBF-project in relation to the assessment of the ROPs and local capacities in the various counties of Croatia. Although progress has certainly been made over the last years, this assessment made clear that further actions would be needed in order to adequately prepare the regions of Croatia for their important tasks in relation to regional and socio-economic development.
• On the basis of this assessment Mr. Boeckhout, Team Leader RDCBF-project, presented the main elements of their training and support plan for building regional development capacity in the regions of Croatia.
On the basis of an interesting discussion on the main elements of what had been presented at the conference, moderator Mrs. Helga Bubanović-Devčić drew the conclusion that follow-up activity will be needed to outline, elaborate, and clarify specific issues of the national regional development programmes in Croatia and how regional and local actors will be involved in the implementation and monitoring of these programmes. Through the anticipated discussions on the NSRD/LRD and the training and support plan of the RDCBF-project the Ministry for Regional Development, Forestry and Water Management will among others initiate this follow-up activity.
EVALUATION OF THE CONFERENCE
All participants were asked to fill out an evaluation sheet handed to them in their conference pack. Participants were asked to evaluate the speakers, the materials they received etc and their overall opinion.
We have received 50 forms back. In the category of general opinion on conference and its organization:
- 60% marked it as excellent
- 32% as very good
- 8% as good
PRESS COVERAGE OF CONFERENCE
Members of the press were invited to attend the conference. Around 10 journalists attended, and a small press conference was held.
As a result of this, information on the conference was published in the following publications/web sites:
1. Hrvatski farmer d.d. web pages, published May 16 2008 http://www.hrvatski-farmer.hr/CMS/0085/Content.aspx?EID=11824
2. Delegation of the European Commission to the Republic of Croatia, published May 16, 2008
http://www.delhrv.ec.europa.eu/en/content/news/id/1237
3. T-portal, published May 16, 2008 , http://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/eu/fset.html
4. Business portal Business.hr, published May 16, 2008
http://business.hr/Default2.aspx?ref=lastcomm&ArticleID=217bfa3a-191b-41c0-97ea-db9b50e460e3&readcomment=1
5. Business portal Poslovni.hr, published May 16, 2008, http://www.poslovni.hr/79829.aspx
6. Daily newspaper Vjesnik, published May 16, 2008: http://www.vjesnik.hr/html/2008/05/17/vijesti.asp
7. HINA, published May 16, 2008 (most reports on the Conference were taken from HINA). Available in electronic format only to subscribers.
Conference announcements
1. Nova Gradiška web portal, published May 13 2008
http://www.novagradiska.com/site/v2/default.php?ngdefault=ng- central.php&ngnovosti=news-id.php&id=1077422
2. Hrvatski savez zadruga, published May 14, 2008, http://www.zadruge.hr/
3. Poslovni susreti-Centralni katalog poslovnih susreta, http://poslovnisusreti.com/Dogadjaj.aspx?ID=129
4. Europska poslovna udruga, web portal,
http://www.epu.hr/webcat/hr-news.asp?ItemID=164&cid=14&itemID2=8
MORE INFORMATION
A summary of the conference and all the presentations can be found on the web site of the Ministry of Regional Development, Forestry and Water management www.mrrsvg.hr
ANNEXES
Annex 1: programme of the conference
Annex 2: list of participants