The fifth meeting of the Working group for Croatia at the Committee of the Regions
Monday, 8th December - the fifth meeting of the Working group for Croatia at the Committee of the Regions was held in Brussels. The meeting began with introductions from Vojko Obersnel (the mayor of Rijeka and president of the Association of towns in the Republic ofCroatia) and Isidoro Gottardo (the president and the Working group for Croatia).
The proposal for the establishment of the Joint Advisory Committee for Croatia at the Committee of the Regions was discussed at the meeting, which was initiated by presidents of two Croatian association of regional and local authorities - Vojko Obersnel (the Association of towns) and Bozo Galic (Croatian community of counties). This initiative is a result of a desire of Croatian local and regional authorities for strong partnership with European institutions. The Joint Consultative Committee would include Croatian representatives, which would result in better quality of dialogue and exchange of experiences, while the European partners would get a better and more complete insight into the challenges that Croatian local and regional authorities face. Other topics discussed at the meeting included the package of enlargement, the EU funds management and the organization of work for 2009.