Croatia's "E-citizens" voted best Open Government Project in Europe

At the global summit of Open Government Partnership (OGP) held in Mexico City, Croatia was awarded as the best European country in terms of open government, in the category pertaining to the advancement of public services. The award was received on behalf of the Croatian government by Joško Klisović, Deputy Foreign Minister and President of the Croatian OGP Council.

This year’s award, decided on by 23 experts from different sectors and 19 countries, was given to Croatia for its e-Citizens project which enables citizens to have modern, faster and simpler communications with the public administration and promotes transparency in the public sector when it comes to providing public services.

“The Croatian government has made the biggest progress in providing quality public services in Europe and has been recognized as respecting the criteria of openness, transparency and inclusiveness as the basis of the 21st century democracy,” Klisović said, adding that such an achievement was possible thanks to a committed process of consultations and cooperation with the citizens, civil society and experts, which are the cornerstones of the OGP methodology and which the Croatian government had adopted and integrated in its relations with the citizens.

The Open Government Partnership initiative was launched in 2011 by Barack Obama to provide an international platform for cooperation between government and the civil society as well as promote reforms to make governments more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens. It has since grown to include 66 participating countries.

Croatia became a member country in 2011 and is currently, according to independent experts, the only one to meet all criteria from both of the Action Plans and has the most activities in the highest quality category of all the 66 member countries.