"The political process becomes pointless without the participation and interest of the citizens"

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Zagreb, 27th of January 2014 - A round table discussion titled "Regionalisation - decentralisation" was held organised by CPP's Political Academy. It was moderated by Boris Blažeković, the Academy's director and CPP's parliamentary representative, and it was opened by Vesna Pusić, CPP's president, first vice-president of the Government and Minister of external and European affairs, with her exposition.

 

 

"We are talking about a subject with which CPP has engaged itself long in and which is contained in all of CPP's programmatical documents and fundamental postulations, and CPP is a regionally organised party according to its Statute. We are also talking about one of the most important subjects for Croatia's citizens, the subject of real life", highlighted CPP's president, first vice-president of the Government and Minister of external and european affairs Vesna Pusić.

"We usually have the highest degree of consensus when it comes to the decentralisation of authority, however, for it to have a point it is necessary to decentralise the resources, which is always a point of contention", she continued. As a third factor she highlighted the decentralisation of knowledge, which is often missing, and if it is so the entire project is compromised.

Pusić pointed to the importance of the subsidiarity principle, that is the possibilities for all problems and needs of the citizens which can be solved on a lower management level, to get solved on that level, and to go to the next level only when they cannot be solved locally. There are multiple reasons for this, firstly a better knowledge of the situation on the local level, a feeling of better representedness and the fact that citizens can influence the decisions which reflect upon their lives. "In case they don't have the feeling that they are partaking in politics, people become uninterested to participate in the political process, and then the process itself becomes pointless", highlighted Pusić.

She highlighted four immediate goal which need to be realised: 1) decentralisation of authority and resources in the areas of education, healthcare, social welfare, culture, spatial planning, traffic and municipal infrastructure; 2) the distribution of tax money; 3) the possibility of repair of the model of immediate election of head people on the local and regional level; 4) the creation of regional excellence centers and regional development agencies in terms of opening potential sources of finance from European funds.

"Decentralisation needs to be carried out in order for the entire country to function more efficiently. When it comes to decentralisation it should be taken into account to increase the efficiency of carrying out public work and the efficiency of citizen participation or codeciding in that work", said Ivan Koprić from the Faculty of law of the University of Zagreb in his exposition. He highlighted that Croatia, along with Slovenia and Greece is among the most centralised countries in Europe.

He warned about the confined space of acting of local self-governance in the giving of public services, as well as the fact that it is not realising its development role. When talking about possible scenarios of decentralisation, Koprić warned that the worst would be to do nothing.

The president of CPP's Central Committee and the Head of Varaždinska County Predrag Štromar also highlighted the importance of reorganising the existing system, pledging for the giving of additional power and work to municipalities, cities and counties, which would, as he highlighted, realise the goal, and that is the efficient functioning of units of local and regional self-governance.

"The real goal because of which decentralisation is carried out are even development, equal opportunity, justness, availability, immediate contact with the place of decision, that is the citizens. We must carry it out on a political, administrative, financial way together because they are mutually conditioned", said the Head of Međimurska County Matija Posavec. He said that such a question isn't solved overnight and definitely demands public discussion.

"This question should definitely not be a question of political trade, and the least of our needs is to create an additional five Zagrebs and then for everything else to be concepted on that place", said Posavec concluding that the development and distribution of institutions need to be as even as possible.