Croatia has established a comprehensive set of institutions for relations between the Government and civil society and supporting civil society development. The system, which now rests upon three pillars ‐ the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs, the Council for Civil Society Development and the National Foundation for Civil Society Development – and the combination of centralized policy‐making with decentralized support to civil society, was dubbed The new Model of the Organizational Structure for Civil Society Development in Croatia. It was initiated in 1998, at time when relations between the Government and civil society had been predominantly antagonistic for some considerable time. Consensual development of the system since that time by state actors, in cooperation with civil society partners, has resulted in a jointly‐owned institutional apparatus which guarantees substantive participation of civil society, particularly in the field of policy-making, and a clear set of agreed policy instruments defining civil society’s role in Croatia’s development, as well as the government’s responsibilities towards civil society.
The institutionalization of civil society‐Government cooperation in Croatia began with the establishment of the Government Office for Cooperation with CSOs in 1998. The Office’s primary task was to build confidence and develop cooperation through financing, consulting, educating and information-sharing. Specifically, the Office is charged with: supervision and implementation of the Strategy for Creation of Environment Stimulating for Development of Civil Society; creation and submission of legal solutions for the sector; monitoring of distribution of financial support to NGOs by state bodies; and coordination of activities of national and local bodies regarding cooperation with the sector. The Office works in close cooperation with the Council for Civil Society Development, for which it acts as a technical, administrative, expert and financial support structure. It also established working groups on various legislative initiatives affecting CSOs. Of particular importance was the Office’s success in drafting, with civil society, the “Programme of Cooperation between the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Non‐government, Non‐for Profit Sector in the Republic of Croatia,” which was signed in 2001. Not only did the Programme establish a transparent national instrument for the state financing of CSOs, it also provided a base for all subsequent strategic policy documents regulating relationships between the Government and civil society. In the Programme’s introduction, the Government recognized the vital role civil society has in promoting both socio‐economic development and participatory, plural democracy. It set out a list of principles according to which the Government should act in its relations with civil society, including: partnership, transparency, liability for the utilization of public resources, the promotion of equal opportunities for all, subsidiary (as the foundation of partnership), promotion of non‐violence, the acceptance of diversity and advancing social capital.
Government‐civil society cooperation was further advanced with the establishment of the Council for Civil Society Development (CCSD) as a governmental advisory body in 2002. The Council is composed of 10 appointees from state administrative bodies, 10 elected representatives of civil society and 3 civil society experts. The Council is primarily responsible for the development and implementation of the Government Strategy in Support of Civil Society, acting as an expert advisor to the Government, but it also has a key role in monitoring the monetary support provided by the state for financing CSO activities. The CCSD is the most important institutional mechanism for Government‐civil society cooperation as it provides a forum for a direct and formalized dialogue between citizens’ associations’ representatives and public administration, on issues directly related to civil society development. Under a revised mandate, as of 2010, it will also include representatives of foundations and trade unions in order to do more justice to its own name and to the diversity of civil society organizing.
The National Foundation is the third pillar of the Croatian civil society support framework. With its establishment, in 2003, the New Model was effectively initiated (see 1.2. Funding for CSOs, State Funding (Central and Local))
Currently, government support to CSOs and policy concerning civil society is outlined in The National Strategy for the Creation of an Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development 2006‐2011 and detailed in its yearly action plans. The strategy, if fully implemented, would significantly strengthen civil society’s capacity to act as an agent of social change; in particular it would secure its role as a meaningful promoter of participatory democracy and human rights and as a competent monitor of civic liberties public policies in the context of Croatia’s final phase of accession to the EU and beyond.
Developed by the Government Office for Cooperation with CSOs and adopted in 2007, this Code regulates the basic standards and principles of practice of state administration bodies in the procedure of awarding of grants to CSOs. It is an important tool for the monitoring of government performance in this area, ensuring efficient resource use, transparency and due process.
The most recent addition to the institutional mechanisms for engaging civil society is the Government’s acceptance, in November 2009, of the Code of Public Consultation in the Procedures of Passing Laws and Other Regulations. The initial draft Code was prepared over a year ago, after a lengthy process of consultations with CSOs. The adopted version, however, was substantially altered within the agreement of the CSOs which participated in drawing up original draft. This resulted in an open letter of protest to the government, signed by several of the most prominent NGOs, in which the willingness of government to engage CSOs is strongly criticized:
[….] this is yet another one of the Government’s decisions which only pro forma satisfy their obligations under various national strategies, without actual willingness and aptitude to significantly engage the civil society organizations and the rest of the interested public in the decision‐making processes as well as to inform them at all of the acceptance of the Code. It is absolutely unacceptable that the Code, which is meant to provide guidelines for efficient consultation of the Government bodies and the interested public, was finalized without consultation with the civil society organizations and without public debate and accepted in a closed session, away from the public eye.
The Code proscribes a minimum of only 15 days as obligatory for consultation process and it lack body responsible for oversight of its implementation, which are some of serious shortcomes. Despite of mentioned, it is important progress in understanding and putting the participatory democracy in practice, in Croatia.
The Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs developed Guidelines for the Code implementation and organized process of public consultation for it, during the winter 2009 – 2010. The Guidelines currently are in the process of finalization.
Cooperation with the Parliament
Even Parliament’s Committees have outside members, representatives of civil society, their influence is still insufficient and request toward Croatian Parliament to improve its transparency and participativeness remains.
Cooperation with political parties
There is a certain level of cooperation of CSOs and political parties in Croatia that exists but more on the ad hoc and not consistent level.
On the local level, the institutional mechanisms for engaging civil society need further improvement. While almost half (39.5%) of the local government units (towns and municipalities) have some kind of advisory boards including civil society representatives, there are very few with formalized agreements on cooperation between local government and civil society organizations (18.1%).