- Published: 30.05.2019.
Depolitisation and decentralisation of state administration
The government sent three final bills to parliament related to the water management sector that are aimed at achieving efficiency of public water suppliers and setting conditions for equalising prices for each service area.
Environment and Energy Minister Tomislav Coric said that the bills will set the conditions to integrate 190 existing water suppliers into one single public supplier in an effort to achieve efficiency in business operations.
Coric said this will set the conditions for the price of water to be the same in a defined service area and ensure a comprehensive economical regulation of the price of water, which is aimed at preventing a monopoly and high tariffs, but also underpriced tariffs, and at keeping water services in the public sector.
These reform measures will strengthen the implementing and investment capacities of water suppliers with a view to increasing the efficiency of all investments in the water sector. They will also secure financial stability and self-sustainability of water suppliers, without any further need for support from local government for regular business operations, as well as strengthen their capacities in the realisation of agglomeration projects, Coric underscored.
The government also adopted a regulation on the lease of state-owned forest land to enable small businesses and family farms to lease said land more easily, said Agriculture Minister Tomislav Tolusic.
Amendments to Civil Procedure Act will speed up lawsuits
The government on Thursday sent a bill of amendments to parliament, including amendments to the Civil Procedure Act aimed at speeding up civil lawsuits.
Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic explained that the key change is the introduction of precedent which means that if the Supreme Court has delivered a ruling in several similar cases, that ruling will become binding for future cases.
Another novelty is that cases will only be reviewed if the Supreme Court deems that to be admissible (labour disputes, determining paternity or maternity, protection against discrimination and, pursuant to the Media Act, in lawsuits regarding corrections of information).
He in particular highlighted the creation of conditions for electronic files (e-spis) which will enable participants in a case to communicate with the court via e-mail. Bosnjakovic also underlined the strengthening of settlement procedures by enabling courts to recommend settlement at any phase of a trial.
Depolitisation and decentralisation of state administration
A bill on the state administration was also sent to parliament, with Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuscevic explaining that this will enable several reform measures - depoliticisation, further professionalisation, decentralisation, and digitisation to make it more accessible for citizens.
In future, assistant ministers, of whom there are currently 96, will no longer be considered to be state officials but department heads selected via publicly advertised vacancies. Decentralisation will occur as state and county administrations will be merged, he added.
The Croatian government on Thursday amended regulations on models and conditions for granting concessions for tourist campgrounds co-owned by the state so as to precisely define the area considered to be used as a camping site.
Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli said that the changes had been made due to the calculation of the variable part of the concession fee which takes account of the level of development of local communities where camping sites are located.
The changes also shift deadlines for the payment of the variable part of concession fees from 31 March to 31 May.
Companies running camping sites will be also allowed to pay concession fees in installments.
In 2018, the tourism ministry issued invoices for all campground concession fees in the amount of 28 million kuna.
Of that amount, HRK 16.8 million was paid into the Tourism Fund, and 11.2 million into the budgets of local communities.
Text: Hina