The Republic of Croatia October 1st became a new member of the Open Government Partnership Steering Committee, with Deputy Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Joško Klisović as its representative.
On the fringes of the UN General Assembly held September 24th in New York an OGP High-Level Event was held (http://www.opengovpartnership.org/ogp-high-level-event-september-24-new-york), at which Croatian President Ivo Josipović underlined Croatia’s results based on which it was elected as a new Steering Committee member. Josipović said that “including the civil society into the public policy decision making and opening a dialogue with the citizens brings a slew of advantages”, stating Croatia’s intent to carry on with the ambitious measures in regard to government transparency and openness, as well as to share its experiences with other OGP member states.
Along with Croatia, the existing Steering Committee member states will also be joined for a two-year term by Brazil, France, the Philippines, Georgia, Tanzania, the United States and Great Britain.
Croatia became a member of the OGP in 2011, whereby it assumed the responsibility of drafting and implementing an Action Plan entailing a series of measures and activities in regard to government transparency and openness. The Croatian government has founded the OGP Council, a body composed of representatives of the governmental and non-governmental sector tasked with coordinating, drafting and monitoring the implementation of the Action Plan. Thanks to that, Croatia has been pointed out as an example of a successful cooperation between the government and the civil sector. Croatia’s 2012-2013 Action Plan was praised as one of the OGP’s best five, while an independent report on the implementation of the Action Plan confirmed that Croatia was one of the most successful member states.
The Open Government Partnership (www.opengovpartnership.org) is an international initiative which through cooperation between governments and the civil society promotes reforms aimed at a more open and responsible government. It was launched by Barack Obama in 2011 on the sidelines of an opening of the UN General Assembly and 65 countries have so far acceded to it.