Local government is enshrined in the Constitution (Art. 133-138) and municipalities and towns in their self-governmental remit have the task of addressing citizens’ needs, which includes culture. The legislative framework regulating the field of culture at the local level gives cities an important role in creating local cultural policies and autonomy in the management of the local cultural sector. This is especially relevant taking into account the public cultural institutions of which the local self-government units are the founders. City budgets are important sources of public funding for the local cultural sector although there are large regional and city differences, not only in the total amount earmarked for culture but also in the percentage of cultural expenditure dedicated to the cultural and creative sectors. Here one also has to stress the central role that the capital city of Zagreb has, not only in relation to (cultural) budget matters, but in the scope of cultural infrastructure situated in the city founded either by the state or of which the city is the founder (see chapter 7.1.2).
As a part of their responsibilities, cities and municipalities finance programmes in local community cultural centres that for some smaller cities are the only venues for arts and culture. The network of community cultural centres is fully decentralised and the level of their involvement in cultural life (as well as their ability to organise and/or host cultural and artistic programmes) varies greatly from one city to the other. In the last couple of years there are initiatives for the transformation of community cultural centres and there are steps towards usage of EU funds for such a change (The European Social Fund (ESF) in particular). In particular, the Open ESF Call ‘Culture in the Centre – Support to the Civil-Public Partnership Development in Culture’ was one of such measures that resulted in 34 projects executed in the period 2018-2020 (see chapter 2.7). However, as the shows, local authorities were occasional partners (6%) in the projects rather than the main project beneficiaries (14%), and the domination of partners and beneficiaries were from the capital city of Zagreb (19.15% and 26.47% respectively).
The Law on Institutions is important for local cultural policies as it establishes the responsibilities of founders in the management and financing of cultural institutions. Local cultural policies, and especially the activities of particular institutions are led by specific sectoral legislation relating to particular types of activities e.g. archives, libraries, museums, theatres or music and performing arts, audio-visual activities, and the protection and promotion of cultural assets. Decentralisation has been a much-debated topic in the past twenty years, so the introduction of Law on Cultural Councils (2001, amended in 2004, 2009 and 2013) was very important for local cultural policies as it included the responsibility to establish cultural councils at city and country levels (decentralisation of the decision-making process). In 2022, the new umbrella Law on Cultural Councils and Financing of Public Needs in Culture (NN 83/2022) has been adopted (see chapter 4.1.2), which lowered the threshold for the establishment of cultural councils – counties and cities with more than 10 000 inhabitants, but also other municipalities and cities if they deem it necessary.
Until recently, cultural strategies on the local level were scarcely adopted; the only exception was the “Istrian Cultural Strategy” of Istra County that was adopted in Poreč in 2009. However, in the last decade, selected cities have adopted them (e.g. Rijeka, Zadar, Varaždin, Osijek, Dubrovnik). This mainly can be attributed to the preparation of these cities for application to the European Capital of Culture programme that obliges cities to have such strategies. With the adoption of the Law on Strategic Planning and Management of Development of the Republic of Croatia (NN 123/2017) this situation is gradually changing as the Law brought about the obligation of strategic planning for all governing levels and sectors involved, all of which is connected to the allocation of the EU funding.
Another important instrument for local cultural policies are the provisions of the Law on the Preservation of Cultural Assets (1999, amended 2003, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022) that is regulating the distribution of funds collected through the Monument Annuity Fund that ensures that a certain percentage of funds is distributed by the local government in the city / municipality where the annuity has been collected.
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