Improving Government responsiveness as key to meaningful public participation in decision-making processes: Croatian experience Igor Vidačak Government of the Republic of Croatia Director, Office for Cooperation with NGOs

1033% increase in number of public consultations in last 4 years In 2011.– 48 public consultations on draft laws, other regulations and act In – 544 public consultations – 1033% increase

More than 4000% increase in number of contributors to public consultations

41% of analysed comments of interested public accepted or partially accepted 334 detailed reports on results of public consultations in analysed comments fully accepted partially accepted not accepted

Introducing new standards of public participation in decision making Code of Practice on Consultation with Interested Public in Procedures of Adopting Laws, Other Regulations and Acts (2009) Regulatory Impact Assessment Law and Regulation – public consultations in an early phase of decision making (2011/12) Law on Access to information – proactive transparency, publishing consultation documents and strengthening the feedback on consultation results (2013) Government Rules of Procedures (2012) and Parliament Rules of Procedures (2013) – amended to institutionalize practice of feedback on consultation results

Decisions of Constitutional Court – strong impetus to raising awareness on the importance of involving the public in decision-making Two by-laws of Ministry of Science, Education and Sports abolished due to the absence of appropriate consultation process „... the democratic nature of the procedure under which takes place public dialogue on issues of common interest is what makes an act, as a result of these procedures, constitutionally acceptable or unacceptable.” Decision of Constitutional Court (U-II-1118/2013) 22 May 2013

Put ting in practice new standards of public consultations/participation Detailed Guidelines for the implementation of the Code of practice on consultation Consultation coordinators appointed in ministries and government offices Training programmes and peer-to-peer support for consultation coordinators Annual reports - Monitoring the implementation of the consultation standards across State bodies Central E-Consultation Portal launched

Detailed step-by-step Guidelines on implementing new consultation standards the question for civil servants is not anymore why but rather how to conduct meaningful public consultation standardized forms for gathering contributions from the interested public standardized forms for reporting on the results of public consultation standardizing information on open/closed consultations available on web pages of all State bodies

Training and peer-to-peer support for consultation coordinators State School for Public Administration – regular training programme on conducting effective public consultations (hundreds of policy, PR officers, other civil servants attended the workshops) Coordination meetings of consultation coordinators (and PR/information officers) – peer to peer support and exchange of best practices of public consultations EU funded project – strenghtening capacities of public consultation coordinators (3 modules training)

Annual reports - Monitoring the implementation of consultation standards Detailed analysis of performance of all State bodies in all phases of public consultations process, with special emphasis on the quality of feedback (reporting methodology continuously improved) Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs that is responsible for preparing integral annual report and submitting it for Government approval Impact of publishing and promoting annual reports on transforming consultation practices in State bodies, but also on changing public perception on government responsiveness /openness

Central E-Consultations Portal single access point to all open public consultations launched by State bodies simple way of commenting of all laws, other regulations and acts by citizens / organisations efficient processing of all received comments and reporting on results of consultations more transparency and openness on both sides  all comments of registered users visible to the public  open monitoring of quality of feedback of all State bodies

Central E-Consultations Portal savjetovanja.gov.hr

Key lessons learned Quality of feedback on results of public consultations – crucial for building public trust and motivation for contributing to policy making Policy coordination – essential for ensuring the proper implementation of consultation standards across State bodies Training of civil servants – key investment in transforming styles of governance

For more information Igor Vidačak Director Office for Cooperation with NGOs Government of the Republic of Croatia