ALDA President Oriano Otočan at the World Forum for Democracy workshop on “Regionalisation and Democratisation”

“In Southeast Europe regionalism and decentralisation are not sufficiently developed” said in his speech ALDA President, Oriano Otočan, tooking part in the debate “Regionalisation and Democracy” organised by the Alsace Regional Council (10 October) in the framework of the Strasbourg World Forum for Democracy.
In partnership with the Assembly of European Regions (AER) and the Congress for Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, the event gave the opportunity to discuss how regions can contribute to the democracy.
Talking about the experiences of European regionalism and the different models of state organisation in Europe, Otočan also highlighted that this situation applies even to Croatia, where the state is still too centralised, and there does not exist a clear picture of how the Croatian regions should look like.
The debate offered the occasion to Mr Otočan to provide a local insight about Istria Region experience (Croatia) in addition to contributions made by Mr Leen Verbeek, Representative of CoE Chamber of Regions, and Ms Hande Özsan Bozatli (TR), AER Vice-president.
“The question of the formation of regions is very important for the local democracy – said ALDA President – because regional governments are important in the transmission of citizens’ desires and needs towards national and European authorities. Beneficial role of regions is reflected in their participation in those decisions that concern citizens at the European level. Along the criteria of economic efficiency, and very important financial rationality, in the consideration of the creation of regions it is also necessary to take into account the criteria of the common identity in a particular area, cultural and geographical features, and the question of local democracy, where the citizens have the ability to be sufficiently “close” to the decision making”, he said.