The Ministry of Culture and Media 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 Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets), drafting media legislation and regulating audio and audiovisual media services and electronic publications (with the Ministry of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure), and in appointing cultural attachés or organising cultural events abroad (with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs). From 2008-2012, together with the then Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts, the Ministry of Culture ran a programme to support SME’s in the field of culture and creative industries entitled ‘Entrepreneurship in culture’, although since 2013 the Ministry of Culture and Media is now the only supporter (see chapter 3.5).
Some important areas of culture, however, do not fall fully under the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture and Media, such as arts education, research and minority cultural groups. For example, while the Ministry of Science and Education takes the lead role for arts education, there is a shared responsibility for research on cultural matters between these two Ministries. The Ministry of Culture and Media and the Government Office for Human Rights and Rights of National Minorities share responsibility for ethnic minority cultural groups.
Prospects for closer inter-ministerial co-operation are hindered by the strict sectoral division of activities while the most important links are financial and economic, i.e. the budget and economic growth. 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. In the recent years the transversal cooperation has been strengthened with the development of the programmes and projects through the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience (2021-2026), as well as out of necessity after the 2020 earthquakes in Zagreb and Sisak-Petrinja surroundings (e.g.rebuilding of cultural infrastructure).
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