LDA presence on the commission «Europe elargie de l’AFCCRE» – French-Croatian meeting in Zagreb (HR)

On 11 October 2011, as part of the activities in its committee «Wider Europe», AFCCRE took the initiative to organise a meeting between the French and the Croatian representatives of local authorities in both countries. The meeting was held in Zagreb in partnership with the Association of Croatian counties, the Union of Croatian towns and municipalities and CIDEM, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the Embassy of France in Croatia.
This initiative was a follow-up of the Conference that AFCCRE organised in the French Senate last February on the contribution of local authorities to the European future of the Western Balkans.
In addition, this meeting in the Croatian capital had symbolic meaning, following the European Council decision on 30 June, to close the accession negotiations of Croatia and is expected to join the European family on 1st July 2013.
In this context, the conference was an excellent opportunity to exchange experiences on Europe territories and Europe for citizens, particularly the impact on local Croatian forthcoming accession to the European Union and the prospects for trade and cooperation between the two countries.
ALDA’s projects and work of the LDA’s in the field of local democracy was presented by Ms. Ivana Dimitrovska, Head of office in Skopje. Ms. Dimitrovska also presented the methodology of work in the Project for decentralised cooperation between the Region Lower Normandy and Republic of Macedonia.
Following the examples presented, it is clear that the Croatian-French cooperation strengthens from year to year. In view of the forthcoming accession of Croatia to the European Union, their field of work is expanding, which will give a wider access to local Croatian actors in the European programs.