ZAGREB, Sept 9, 2020 – President Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday evening while attending a formal session of the Varazdin County Assembly marking County Day, that renewed division of Croatia into regions would be disintegration.
“What was done in 1993 without a referendum, at the height of the war, when there were more pressing priorities than local government, will not be easily reversed,” he said and added that the counties, as the form of administration and “transmission between the central government (and regional government) in a country of just four million people”, made more sense than regions.
A renewed division of Croatia into regions would be disintegration, the president said.
He expressed hope that Varazdin County would continue “in the good direction”, emphasizing the importance of absorbing EU funding as a measure of success.
PM: A harmonious approach to the development of northern Croatia
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who also attended the ceremony, spoke of the efforts made by the government in its previous term to ensure a more balanced development of the country.
“That’s the foundation of our policy which is based on four pillars: continued, steady and open dialogue, functional decentralization, fiscal decentralization, and project cooperation,” the prime minister said.
He also recalled government aid to employers and workers, including those in Varazdin County, to help them cope with the crisis caused by the global coronavirus pandemic.
“The government has so far provided HRK 300 million (€40m) for the benefit of workers. Had we not done that, they would probably be in trouble now, many of them would possibly be out of work,” Plenkovic said, that 34,000 workers in Varazdin County were covered by the government’s aid measures.
He said that Croatia was facing the challenges of recovery and development which required aligning priorities for “a harmonious approach to the development of northern Croatia.”
County Prefect Radimir Cacic said that for three years in a row Varazdin County was by far the most successful county in absorbing EU funds in the segment of energy renovation.
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