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Current Situation and Future Perspectives of Regional Policy in Croatia

Regional policies in European Union member countries have undergone significant changes in recent two decades. New policy approach is particularly focused on issues such as regional competitiveness, role of regional and local actors in managing development, multi-annual programming and policy evaluation. Latest policy trends have not yet been recognized by Croatian policy-makers. Croatian regional policy is still based on old-fashioned instruments such as tax relief’s and intergovernmental transfers, while a meaningful approach to supporting regional growth and competitiveness is lacking. Accession process could become a catalyst for setting up new and modern regional policy, but on the other hand it could result with having two parallel systems of supporting regional development based on entirely different principles. On the basis of the identified trends in European regional policies and the analysis of current regional development and regional policy context, the paper provides recommendations for improvement of the current policy approach.