Marušić: Tourism important instrument of regional cooperation, catalyst of Euro-integration processes

“Tourism is an important instrument of regional cooperation and a powerful Euro-integration catalyst in the region,” said Assistant Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Hrvoje Marušić at the first European Interparliamentary Conference on Sustainable Tourism

“Tourism is an important instrument of regional cooperation and a powerful Euro-integration catalyst in the region,” said Assistant Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Hrvoje Marušić at the first European Interparliamentary Conference on Sustainable Tourism. He spoke about the possibilities that the EU membership offered, such as investment funds, easier access to the European market and entering the global market with a “European brand”.

Given the economic and political situation on the national, European and global level, Marušić said that the Union’s focus was on economic growth and employment. In that context tourism is not only an economic factor, but a political one as well, as it stimulates economic and cultural exchange and contributes to political cohesion and stability, he said, adding that EUR 325 million had been allocated for cohesion policy in the 2014-2020 period, which can be a basis for increasing each individual member state’s competitiveness as well as that of the EU as a whole.

Underlining the importance of tourism as part of the EU instruments, Hrvoje Marušić outlined the prospects of synergy and joint projects on the level of macro-regional strategies, which are a great tool for discussing common priorities and projects. The European structural and investment funds have earmarked EUR 11 billion for Croatia in the 2014-2020 period. This will be invested in infrastructure, more effective human resources and new attractions that will stimulate rural development.

Since Croatia is taking part in 13 programmes of cross-border and transnational cooperation, Marušić said that around EUR 1 billion have been allocated for the so called ‘soft programmes’. He underlined regional cooperation instruments as Croatia’s foreign policy priorities, saying that an economically prosperous and politically stable neighbourhood was in Croatia’s vital interest and that tourism, as an important economic factor, had a positive effect on social cohesion and political stability. “Croatia is Southeast Europe’s bridge towards the EU via political support as well as the transfer of experiences and know-how through Croatia Forum, the Centre of Excellence, the Croatia House project and educational programmes, notably European studies, and tourism has a place in all of these segments,” Marušić said.

In conclusion, he presented ‘Adriatic Hinterland Development”, a cross-border project of developing the rural Adriatic hinterland, which addresses common problems of poor economic development, depopulation and a closed community. The project aims to stimulate tourism as a new economic activity in said areas through three stages: raising awareness of the local community, networking and education; investing in infrastructure via the European structural and investment funds; and finally, private investments. Some 160 projects worth EUR 240 million have been identified and tenders are currently being prepared for them. 

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