Presentation of the 5th OGP initiative Proposal

Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative Council has drafted the OGP initiative 5^th Action Plan for the implementation in the Republic of Croatia.

The Republic of Croatia (RoC), as one of the OGP initiative’s 70 member countries from the very beginnings, i.e. from 2011, support the principles of transparency, fighting corruption, citizens’ empowerment and use of the new technology benefits, in order for the public administration bodies on all levels to become more efficient and responsible, as well as the preconditions to be made for more efficient and innovative public service provision and public resource management.

After the RoC having joined the OGP in August 2011, the same year when the initiative was initiated, in January 2012 already the OGP initiative Council was established. The Council currently has been operating in its 3^rd convocation including 28 representatives of the state, regional and local administration (their presence has the key importance for the initiative thematic areas), civil society organisations (CSOs), as well as the academic community and media. The Council is chaired by the State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, while her deputy is the president of the Institute for Public administration. The Council is responsible for drafting and preparing of the Action Plan for the OGP initiative implementation Proposal, as well as the monitoring of the named document and proposing of changes and amendments of the Action Plan to the Croatian Government.

The RoC has so far prepared and implemented a total of four Action Plans for the OGP initiative implementation (for the period 2012 to 2013, 2014 to 2016, then for the period to 2020 and the period 2022 to 2023), by which has shown its dedication to the OGP idea.

The process of drafting the fifth Action plan for the OGP initiative implementation in the RoC has been initiated with the invitation to the citizens, associations and the whole interested public to suggest the areas and priorities, as well as the potential measures to be served as the basis for the preparation of the new Action Plan for the OGP initiative implementation in the RoC, by fulfilling the short questionnaire. In the period of two weeks, during which the questionnaire was available to be fulfilled, 4 proposals were submitted by the associations and citizens. The sector analysis forms were collected also from the members of the OGP initiative Council. Therefore on the basis of the collected contributions, as well as the global initiative proposals the OGP initiative first National Action Plan implementation in the RoC for the period from 2025 to 2027 was drafted.

On the basis of the proposals submitted during the consultations on the fifth Action Plan priorities, the information obtained from the fourth Action Plan Report (category: next steps), recommendations form the Independent Reporting Mechanism reports on the results of the implementation of the Action Plan for the period 2022-2023, as well as the continuity of the OGP initiative Council’s meetings during 2024 and 2025 (3 meetings per year), which were mostly focused on proposing activities and discussion on the fifth Action Plan for the implementation of the OGP initiative in the RoC, the Action Plan for the period 2025-2027 has got its first outlines.

Even though the Action Plan has been originally planned for the period from 2025 to 2027, due to delays in its preparation, the implementation period to which The Action Plan refers was updated at the end of 2025, and the deadlines for the implementation of activities were aligned in order to shift the overall implementation of the Action Plan from the perod initially covering the period from 2025 to 2027 to the period from 2026 to 2028.
 
The final draft of the new Action Plan, on which the public consultation will be conducted in May 2026 has been drafted on the basis of the described working methods, as well as the contribution of the relevant state administration bodies and the OGP initiative Council’s members. The Action Plan final draft will be confirmed on the OGP initiative Council’s session before being adopted by the Croatian Government.

Following the a.m. described process, i.e. the results of the initial public consultation on the priorities for the next period of the OGP initiative implementation in the Roc, consultations with the interested public (public consultation), interdepartmental consultative working meetings and discussions during the OGP initiative Council’s sessions, the main priority areas for the next two years were determined - namely: transparency, openness, fight against corruption, public participation, sustainability of the OGP initiative and for the first time - Climate and Environment. The measures and implementation activities which should be realised with the purpose of reaching the defined goals - in total 12 measures and 32 activities including carriers and the implementation deadlines were defined for each of the named areas.

Most of the measures are related to the thematic unit Transparency, which keep continuing the work started in the previous action plans. It has been envisaged within thematic unit further improvement of the Law on the Right to Information Act through the education of officials and the right beneficiaries, the development of digital tools for submitting requests, and the encouragement of uniform and lawful behaviour by public authorities. The activities aimed at increasing of the number and quality of data published at the Open Data Portal, including high-value data sets in accordance with EU Acquis, as well as the activities related to strengthening the protection of personal data through education and the development of appropriate tools for compliance with regulations will be continued.

Special focus has been given to the fiscal and budget transparency. Also, the publication of the data on public funds spending in open and machine-readable formats continues, the existing applications for reviewing budget payments are improved, and the data are additionally adapted to different target groups in order to increase their comprehensibility. It has been also foreseen the establishment of the information system for monitoring of the CSOs programmes and projects, by which a greater transparency and uniformity of procedures of the allocation of public funds will be ensured.

In the thematic unit Openness the emphasis has been put on improving the regulatory framework for the media and strengthening the transparency of media ownership and financing. By adopting the new Media Act a modern and uniform legislative framework for printed and electronic media, adapted to the conditions of the digital society is ensured. In the same time, the Croatian Parliament activities aimed at raising of political and constitutional literacy of the primary and secondary schools’ students have been continued through the implementation of educational programmes. By that, the understanding of the legislative process and the role of the representative body in the democratic system will be encouraged.

In the thematic unit Fight against corruption the implementation of the measures related to the whistle-blowers protection continues. By educating confidential persons and employees in the public sector and by informing potential applicants about their rights and protection mechanisms, institutional integrity is strengthened and more effective application of the current legislative framework is achieved.

Thematic unit Public Participation is directed at increasing transparency of the laws and other regulations process of creation, as well as further strengthening of the electoral processes openness. Strengthening of the state administration bodies about the importance of publishing data on the composition of working groups and advisory bodies has been planned. At the same time, the transparency of the work of the Croatian State Election Commission will be increased and the level of public awareness of its role in ensuring the legality and transparency of election and referendum procedures will be raised.

The Action Plan includes for the first time the separate thematic unit dedicated to the Climate Changes and Environment Protection. By implementing public calls for funding of the CSOs projects in the field of environmental protection and energy efficiency, information and active participation of citizens in the promotion of sustainable practices has been encouraged, thereby linking the principles of open government with sustainable development policies.

With the view of ensuring the long-term sustainability of the OGP initiative, the integration of its principles to the public servants professional training system has been planned, as well as the encouraging the implementation of the initiative at the local and regional level. Special attention has been paid to the implementation of calls for financing of CSOs projects and activities in the education system, which strengthen awareness of transparency, responsibility and the fight against corruption. The permanent integration of the open government principle into the work of the public administration and education system will be ensured by the defined measures.

The measures implementation will be coordinated by the OGP initiative Council with the GOfNGOs expert assistance. Also, the progress in implementation will be monitored on the regular basis and reported to the Croatian Government, as well as be evaluated within the Independent Reporting Mechanism.
 
Additionally, through public discussions organised during the Action Plan implementation and the presentation of the Initiative and education at the national and local levels, the interested public will have the opportunity to comment on its implementation.

Further information is also available in the presentation on the draft Action Plan available on the link.























 

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