Plenković chairs a meeting with county, city and municipal leaders

The Croatian Prime Minister chaired a government meeting with representatives from Croatian counties, cities and municipalities in Dubrovnik today. The meetings were initially introduced in 2016 in a bid to achieve balanced regional development throughout the country.

Among the issues discussed on Tuesday were the new construction and spatial planning acts, and the further development of affordable housing projects, with both sides lauding their excellent cooperation. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković: "What gives me special pleasure, is that we will shortly adopt a new law on regional development that will not only formally institutionalize our meetings that will be titled the Council for Regional Development. And this will also encompass other formats, such as the Council for Local Development, which will be formatted based on the example of the councils for Slavonia, the north, the Adriatic and central Croatia. So, we will have a framework that will enable us to intensively lead a policy of creating equal opportunity in all regions of Croatia."

Meanwhile, the President of the Croatian Association of Counties and Brod-Posavina County Prefect, Danijel Marušić, lauded the strong cooperation between government and units of local government: "What speaks volumes in support of our joint work is the fact that 23 county working groups with around forty opinions actually participated in the creation and adoption of all these laws."

While in Dubrovnik Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Davor Božinović presented county and municipal heads the concept of civilian service for conscientious objectors who do not wish to participate in the newly adopted plan to reintroduce mandatory military training as of the new year: "As I mentioned, one part would serve three months in the Civil Protection Directorate, while those in counties, cities and municipalities will serve four months doing work tied to civil protection and the first and foremost deal in prevention, which should help us as a society achieve a higher level of resilience and a higher level of inclusion among the citizenry in those jobs that are of common interest."

Source: HRT