Study visit to the Republic of Montenegro and Croatia

Venue: Republic of Montenegro and Croatia
Date: 24–27 April 2013

Topic:

• Reforms in the Republic of Montenegro and Croatia – challenges and the prospect of European integration.
• Lecturers / Speakers

Boris Milloshevic, Deputy Minister of Local Administration of the Republic of Croatia

Jelena Pavicic – Vukicevic, Deputy Mayor of Zagreb

Stjepan Kožic, Prefect of Zagreb County

Edi Shtefanic, Mayor of the City of Poreč

Representatives of the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

Representatives of the Municipality of Ulcinj

Visits:
Republic of Croatia: Ministry of Local Administration of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb, Zagreb County, City of Poreč, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Montenegro: Municipal Council of Ulcinj, Executive of the Municipality of Ulcinj.
Under the auspices of the Kosovo Local Government Institute, as part of the “Local Governance Academy” project, we stayed on a study visit to two countries of the region – the Republic of Montenegro and Croatia.

In Croatia, we were received by the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, Boris Milloshevic, the Prefect of Zagreb, Stjepan Kožic, the Deputy Mayor of Zagreb, Ms Jelena Pavicic Vukicevic, and the Mayor of Poreč, Edi Shtefanic, while in Montenegro the participants were received by officials of the Municipality and some other representatives of parliamentary life in the Republic of Montenegro.

Receiving the delegation from Kosovo, Deputy Minister Milloshevic expressed his appreciation for the Academy and stressed the importance and value of establishing close cooperation between the two countries in the field of local governance. He expressed his conviction that the local governments of the two countries can exchange their experiences and apply them successfully in their respective municipalities, in the best interests of the communities they lead. Local governance is directly connected to people and their activities through its direct impact on their lives and on communities as a whole. As part of this study visit, this government department presented a short overview of local governance in the Republic of Croatia.

Croatia has a three-tier system of government; local government in the Republic of Croatia consists of 155 local government units, of which 428 are municipal units, 127 are local city units at the second level of government and 21 belong to the third level, the counties (županije), which includes Zagreb.

The competences of the municipal government units are set out in the laws in force, although Croatia has concentrated a large number of competences in the central government, so that in reality there is little talk of elements of decentralisation of power. At the level of cities as units of government, competences are exercised in the areas of primary and secondary education, culture, social welfare and primary health care, construction, territorial civil protection and public services.

While representatives of the relevant ministry elaborated on how local government is organised, several problems affecting the quality of governance management were singled out, such as various deadlocks caused by divergences between city mayors and assemblies, with the assemblies failing to pass the mayor’s decisions on various capital investments. These problems arise from the electoral system, in which a mayor directly elected by the people often does not have a majority in the city assembly.

In the event of conflicts between the mayor and the assembly, and failure to reach consensus within a period of 3 months, the central government activates the mechanism of calling early elections for the local unit in question. This institution is characteristic of the Republic of Croatia, where these two governing bodies, the mayor and the council, have balanced competences.

In Zagreb County we were received by the Prefect of Zagreb, Stjepan Kožic, who explained the role the county plays in relation to municipalities and cities, as well as in relation to the relevant Ministry. He also clarified that the county mainly regulates matters related to spatial planning in relation to development needs; for information, Zagreb County has a budget of 40 million euros a year available during the fiscal year. Zagreb has paid particular attention to the environment, while economic development is mainly about the food industry, which is highly developed; particular attention is also paid to electricity efficiency, and the tram manufacturing industry has also taken off. In conversation with Deputy Mayor Pavicic-Vukicevic, she stressed the importance of providing social services and the discrimination that local levels of government face in this respect. It was said that local government reform is seen as an ongoing process and should come about as a result of analysis based on indicators and real needs on the ground; for me personally, this was very important.

Also during the study visit to Croatia, of particular importance was the visit to the Municipality of Poreč and to representatives of the Albanian community in the region of Istria, who gave the Academy delegation a magnificent welcome. The Mayor of Poreč told us in detail about the role this coastal city plays in economic development and tourism in the region of Istria, which is the engine of tourism development in Croatia. Despite the fact that this region has only 17 thousand inhabitants and a relatively small local government administration, it manages to generate annual revenue of over 700 million euros; however, the mayor expressed his concern that all revenue goes into the state budget and only 30% of it is returned to the city to invest in various areas. Meanwhile, in Ulcinj, we were received by officials of the Municipality, who spoke about the Municipality’s efforts to stimulate tourism and the need for tourism of every kind to be included in the municipality’s strategy as part of municipal strategies. During the visit to this municipality, something of particular importance worth highlighting is that the representatives singled out several problems that local governance in Ulcinj continually faces, such as:

• The lack of a law on the legalisation of buildings constructed without permits; they emphasised that there is a large number of buildings without building permits. In this context there would be two effects: on the one hand, if these taxes were applied in this area there would be a strong upward trend in own-source revenue, and on the other it would have a positive impact in stopping construction outside urban plans;

• Local representatives also expressed their concern about own-source revenue from maritime assets, since of all the revenue Ulcinj generates only 20% is returned to the Municipality for capital investment, which means that the rest goes into the state budget; this phenomenon shows that there are no elements of fiscal decentralisation, and it hinders local economic development and the reduction of unemployment.

Personally, I consider it a fruitful visit and a good experience, having seen at close quarters the organisation and functioning of local governance in Croatia and Montenegro, and I believe that with this report I have managed to describe the content of the study visit in brief points.