Croatian Union of Municipalities ''( Croatian: Hrvatska Zajednica Općina)'' is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

non-governmental A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

and non-partisan

organization An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

founded on the principle of

voluntary association A voluntary group or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, common-interest association, association, or society) is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement, usually as volunteering, volunteers, to form a body (or organ ...

. It was established by the Croatian municipalities with the purpose to promote and protect their common interests. In 2021 Association of Municipalities counts 327 (from total of 428)

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

from across all 20

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Institutional background

The association was established on June 19, 2002 in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

, based on the Law on Associations and Law on Local and Regional Self-Government. Croatian

have been members of the Association of Towns and Municipalities from 1975 to 2002 until there was a dissolution of the

and three separate Local government associations were created: The Association of Municipalities, The Association of Towns and The Croatian County Association. From 2012 to 2015 there was The Coordination of The Local Government (KOLOS) constituted of The Association of Municipalities and The Association of Towns. In March 2019 association changes its name to Croatian Union of Municipalities. Presidents of The Association of Municipalities: *Ivo Emić (2002–2007) *Ivica Klem (2007–2009) *Đuro Bukvić (2009–2017) *Martin Baričević (2017–''present'')

Governing bodies and activities of the Association of Municipalities

Governing bodies defined by the Statute of the Association of Municipalities: *

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and three

Vice-Presidents A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Secretary General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

*Assembly (member representatives) *

Management board Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

(20 members – one from each

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

) *

Presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by a ...

(five members) Key activities of the association include: promotion of cooperation and sharing of experiences between Croatian municipalities; promotion of special features in

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human Society, societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, and habits of the ...

and other spheres of

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

life; legal review of

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law i ...

relevant for

local self-government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

; facilitation of professional training for local officials and employees; organization of thematic conferences and meetings relevant to municipalities and their interests;

advocacy Advocacy is an Action (philosophy), activity by an individual or advocacy group, group that aims to influence decision making, decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to infl ...

of municipal interests in front of

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

bodies and other

institution Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...

s; assisting members to establish

cooperation Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal a ...

with municipalities outside Croatia; cooperation with like organizations at home as well as abroad, as well as with organizations which mandates contribute to key goals and principles of the association; regular

information sharing Information exchange or information sharing means that people or other entities pass information from one to another. This could be done electronically or through certain systems. These are terms that can either refer to bidirectional ''informa ...

with its members and various publishing and printing activities.

Local Self-Governance in the Republic of Croatia

The right to local and regional self-government is guaranteed by the

Croatian Constitution The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia ( hr, Ustav Republike Hrvatske) is promulgated by the Croatian Parliament. History While it was part of the socialist Yugoslavia, the Socialist Republic of Croatia had its own Constitution under the ...

. Croatian system of local self-government is based on the principle of

autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...

of government and the principle of

subsidiarity Subsidiarity is a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate or local level that is consistent with their resolution. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines subsidi ...

. Croatia has 21 units of regional self-government, which consist of 20 counties with the city of

, 127

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

(without Zagreb) and 428

. Each municipality, city and county have their own representative body. Croatian municipalities are currently in a process of

depopulation A population decline (also sometimes called underpopulation, depopulation, or population collapse) in humans is a reduction in a human population size. Over the long term, stretching from prehistory to the present, Earth's total human population ...

which is becoming a serious problem. Just in the last ten years they have lost 80,285 inhabitants.

International cooperation

Cooperation between

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and

with local and regional governments in other countries is regulated by the Law on Local and Regional self-government. Cooperation with appropriate local and regional governments of other

countries A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state (polity), state, nation, or other polity, political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, so ...

is established and developed within their self-governing jurisdiction, in accordance with the law and international

treaties A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal perso ...

. The decision on establishing mutual cooperation, and the conclusion of agreements is made by the council, representative body of the local government. The Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Croatia is a member of NALAS (Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South East Europe). The Network brings together 16 Associations which represent roughly 9,000 local authorities, directly elected by more than 80 million citizens of this region.

Interesting facts

About 30% of the Croatian population live in the

and the average number of inhabitants in the Croatian municipalities is slightly less than 3 000. The smallest municipality is Civljane (239 inhabitants) and the largest Viškovo with 14,445 inhabitants. The northernmost municipality is

Sveti Martin na Muri Sveti Martin na Muri (, "St-Martin-on-the- Mur") is a village and municipality in Međimurje County, in northern Croatia. History In Ancient time Roman settlement ''Halicanum'' stood on the site of today's village Sveti Martin na Muri. Settle ...

, the easternmost is Lovas,

Konavle Konavle () is a municipality and a small region located southeast of Dubrovnik, Croatia. It is administratively part of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the center of the municipality is Cavtat. Demographics The total municipality population wa ...

is the southernmost and the westernmost is

Brtonigla Brtonigla ( it, Verteneglio; Venetian: ''Vertenejo'') is a village and a municipality in the north-western part of Istria County, Croatia. Brtonigla is officially bilingual, with Croatian and Italian being equal; in 2011, 40% of the population d ...

. The highest municipality is

Mrkopalj Mrkopalj () is a village and a municipality in the mountainous part of Croatia in the region of Gorski Kotar, located south-east of Delnice and some 50 km east of Rijeka and 831 meters above sea level. In 2011 the municipality had 1,214 inh ...

(1,070 m). The smallest municipality is

Dekanovec Dekanovec ( hu, Dékánfalva) is a village and municipality in Međimurje County, Croatia. Dekanovec is the only village in the municipality. It is by territory the smallest municipality in Croatia. It is located between Novakovec and Domašine ...

(6.1 km2). The Split-Dalmatian County has the biggest number of municipalities (39), and the Požega-Slavonia County has the smallest number (5). The longest

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

Velika Pisanica Velika Pisanica is a village and municipality in Bjelovar-Bilogora County, Croatia. Demographics According to the 2021 census, the population of the municipality was 1,313 with 830 living in the town proper. In 2011, there were 1,781 inhabitants i ...

in the municipality of Velika Pisanica (13 km). The municipality of

Hrašćina Hrašćina is a municipality in the Krapina-Zagorje County in Croatia. According to the 2001 census, there are 1,826 inhabitants in the area, absolute majority which are Croats The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group ...

Krapina-Zagorje County Krapina-Zagorje County (, hr, Krapinsko-zagorska županija) is a Counties of Croatia, county in northern Croatia, bordering Slovenia. It encompasses most of the historic region called Hrvatsko Zagorje. The area contains the excavation site of a ...

is known for its

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

fall in May 1751: it was the first detailed and officially documented fall of an extraterrestrial matter in the world and is considered to be the beginning of scientific astronomy in this part of Europe.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Association of Municipalities of the Republic of Croatia – official website

Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe - official website

Ministry of Public Administration (Croatia) - official website
Organizations based in Croatia Municipalities of Croatia 2002 establishments in Croatia Organizations established in 2002