Croatia/ 3. Competence, decision-making and administration  

3.3 Inter-ministerial or intergovernmental co-operation

The Ministry of Culture regularly co-operates with other ministries to bring general and related laws into harmony with cultural legislation. They also co-operate in fields in which the competencies of various ministries are involved, such as the protection of cultural heritage (with the Ministry of the Interior), conservation and protection of historical town centres (with the Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning), drafting media legislation and regulating audio and audiovisual media services and electronic publications (with the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure), and in appointing cultural attachés or organising cultural events abroad (with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs).

Some important areas of culture, however, do not fall fully under the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture, such as arts education, research and minority cultural groups. For example, while the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports takes the lead role for arts education, the Ministry of Culture provides some funding in the form of bursaries for artists and support for continuous education. There is a shared responsibility for research between these two Ministries. The Ministry of Culture and the Government Office for Human Rights and National Minorities (until 2012 these areas were under two separate offices) share responsibility for ethnic minority cultural groups.

Prospects for closer inter-ministerial co-operation are hindered by the strict sectoral division of activities. The most important links are financial and economic, i.e. the budget and economic growth, and the issue of EU membership, which has been singled out as the common goal. There are a number of trans-sectoral strategies which contribute to better coordination between different ministries and various levels of government. Co-operation between national, regional and municipal levels of government continues to be a very important segment of cultural policy, particularly when it comes to investment projects in renewing old institutions or building and setting up new cultural institutions such as libraries, archives, museums and theatres.

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