Minister Kuscevic: Government wants to ensure equal regional development

Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuscevic on Thursday said that a set of measures the government formulated in the final bills of amendments to the local government legislation and to the legislation on financing local government was a clear message that the cabinet wants equal regional development throughout the country.

Kuscevic told a news conference that the proposed bills would facilitate the performance of units of local self-government.

The final bill on local and regional self-government includes the possibility for a representative body to call, by a two-thirds majority vote, a referendum to replace the head of a local self-government unit, which strengthens the roles of both that representative body and citizens, whereas to date, a referendum could be called only if the petition for such referendum was signed by 20% of the eligible voters in that local unit.

The final bill has omitted imposing limits on pecuniary rewards for members of local councils, and the minister explained that the removal of the limit was also proof that the government did not intend to interfere with the fiscal independence of local units of self-government.

Text: Hina