ELoGE in Croatia: first steps and establishing cooperation

ALDA continues to contribute to good governance on local level in Croatia and takes its activities on the next level. ALDA launched the “European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE)” for Croatia on the 22 November 2021 in Zagreb. The project was promoted in a hybrid type of event, giving representatives of municipalities and participants the possibility to join both online and in presence.

The launching started with a short welcoming speech from M. Robert Ravenšćak, General Director of Ravecon LLC, our local partner organization and continued with the intervention from the President of ALDA M. Oriano Otočan and M. Niall Sheerin, representative of the Center of Expertise for Good governance, from the Council of Europe (CoE)

ALDA continues to contribute to good governance on local level in Croatia, launching the ELoGE programme for Croatia

M.Otočan illustrated the work of ALDA in Europe and specifically in Croatia; highlighting:

• The duality of the local authorities in the country;
• The openness they show in certain topics but remain firmly closed for other.

Thus, he reflected on how on the one hand Croatia has reached certain level of expertise and maturity; while on the other there are still difficulties that persist; emphasizing how this project will be perfect to tackle them.

Following, M. Otočan speech, M. Sheerin shared with the participant on the important work of the CoE mentioning the future plans and programmes that they are working on, such as the green agenda concerning Local Authorities. He highlighted that in these eras of social media and advanced technology, local authorities need to be innovative and open to change, in order to be efficient and effective in responding to the needs of the citizens.

The opening speeches were followed by a presentation of the ELoGE programme in the Country, done by Ms. Katica Janeva, ALDA’s regional coordinator for the Balkans, citing the details of the phases and processes that the LAs need to follow to be awarded the label, specific timing and timeline, tools and more. The event was closed off with a Q&A session and a fruitful discussion.