The article examines how Croatia, following its accession to the European Union in 2013, developed its international development cooperation system and transitioned from being a recipient of international aid to becoming a provider of Official Development Assistance (ODA). The research is based on an analysis of legislation, strategic documents, annual reports on the implementation of development cooperation, and data on 929 bilateral projects implemented between 2020 and 2024, with a total value of approximately EUR 270 million. The study analyses geographical and sectoral priorities, financing instruments, implementation channels, and the role of technical assistance and the transfer of Croatia’s transition and post-war experiences.

The findings show that Croatia has made significant progress in increasing its development assistance and aligning its development cooperation system with European and international norms. Total Official Development Assistance reached EUR 214.94 million in 2024, equivalent to 0.22% of Croatia’s Gross National Income (GNI). This brings Croatia closer to the European Union’s collective target, according to which Member States that joined the EU after 2002 are expected to allocate 0.33% of GNI to development assistance by 2030. Bilateral aid, in particular, increased substantially, rising from EUR 16.2 million in 2020 to EUR 88.6 million in 2024. The analysis demonstrates that Croatia’s bilateral development cooperation has been strongly focused on its immediate neighbourhood and crisis-affected areas. In 2020, the Western Balkans received 57.4% of Croatia’s bilateral aid, while following the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, almost two-thirds of bilateral assistance in 2022 was directed to Ukraine. By 2024, the Western Balkans had once again become the principal destination, accounting for 45.7% of bilateral assistance, while Ukraine continued to receive a substantial share of 33.5%.

Bosnia and Herzegovina occupies a particularly prominent position within Croatia’s development cooperation. Between 2020 and 2024, it received approximately 90.5% of Croatia’s total bilateral assistance to the Western Balkans. Within the sectoral allocation of aid to the region, education and culture accounted for the largest share (48.3%), followed by health (24.4%).

The article also highlights a discrepancy between Croatia’s declared comparative advantages and their visibility in official statistics. Although Croatia identifies its experience in European integration, post-war reconstruction, demining, institution-building, and knowledge transfer as key strengths, technical assistance financed from the state budget declined from EUR 1.06 million in 2020 to only EUR 440,000 in 2024, representing just 0.2% of total Official Development Assistance. The authors stress that this does not necessarily mean Croatia is no longer transferring its knowledge and expertise. Rather, most such activities are implemented through European Union programmes such as Twinning and TAIEX, and are therefore recorded as EU development assistance rather than as Croatian ODA.

The article recommends establishing a unified national register of development assistance, humanitarian aid, and technical cooperation; introducing mandatory classification of projects according to strategic and geographical priorities; developing a monitoring and evaluation system to assess development results; and systematically strengthening the capacity of public institutions to apply OECD-DAC reporting rules. According to the authors, these measures would improve the management of Croatia’s development cooperation portfolio and provide a clearer link between Croatia’s specific expertise and tangible development outcomes.

The article is available on the Wiley Online Library website:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dpr.70083

Objava Scientific Article on the Republic of Croatia’s International Development Cooperation Policy Published pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

Objava IRMO researcher on professional development in ex-ante evaluation of public policies pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

The study analyses the effects of the “Zaželi” programme, an intervention aimed at employing unemployed women without tertiary education to provide assistance and care to older people. Rather than focusing solely on the outcomes of individual participants, the research examines the programme’s aggregate effects on local labour markets.

Using a difference-in-differences approach, the authors assessed the programme’s impact on women’s long-term unemployment, employment outside the programme, and labour force participation rate. The results indicate a significant reduction in the share of long-term unemployed women, with a more persistent effect emerging approximately two years after a municipality entered the programme. Some of the short-term changes were associated with the programme’s implementation cycle and with participants returning to the unemployment register after their programme-supported employment ended.

The study found no evidence that the programme reduced women’s employment opportunities in other jobs, meaning that no displacement of regular employment was detected. At the same time, no significant effects were identified on women’s employment outside the programme or on their overall labour force participation rate. The findings therefore suggest that the programme played an important social and activation role, while also showing that temporary, publicly funded employment does not necessarily lead to stronger integration into the regular labour market.

The paper also provides methodological recommendations for evaluating large-scale labour market interventions, particularly regarding the timing of evaluations, data availability, and the need to monitor multiple indicators at the local level.

The paper is available open access on the Springer Nature website at the following link:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12651-026-00438-0

Objava Paper Published on the Effects of the “Zaželi” Programme on Local Labour Markets pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

The authors of the paper are Zvonimir Kuliš, project lead and Assistant Professor at the Department of Tourism, Faculty of Economics, University of Split; Josip Mikulić, Full Professor at the Department of Tourism, Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb, and Scientific Advisor at the Institute for Tourism; and Stjepan Srhoj, Associate Professor at the Department of General Economics, Faculty of Economics, University of Split, and Senior Research Associate at Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO).

Since May 2025, retail traders in Croatia have been legally required to publish their product prices publicly on a daily basis. This dataset—comprising approximately 1.3 billion daily price records for the period from May to October 2025—enabled the authors to track price movements of individual products across locations and compare coastal municipalities with the rest of Croatia throughout the entire tourist season.

Prices in coastal, tourism-intensive municipalities are already higher in May, but the paper’s main finding is that they increase further during the summer. This additional increase follows an inverted U-shaped pattern: the difference in price growth between the coast and inland areas gradually widens as the season progresses, peaks in July and August when tourism demand is at its highest, and then weakens by October. This pattern remains robust even when the analysis is restricted to a subsample of 30 essential product categories and a subsample of products with identical barcodes. The analysis also finds that the average price increase on the coast is greater for one group of retail chains, while for others, prices on the coast and inland change at roughly the same rate on average.

The results suggest that seasonal grocery price inflation represents a tourism externality that directly affects local residents. This also raises questions of fairness: coastal cities are home to many residents who do not earn income from tourism, yet they are effectively disadvantaged by seasonal price increases, as the real value of their wages falls below that of workers in other parts of Croatia. This is particularly pronounced in occupations with nationally standardized wages, such as healthcare workers, teachers, and police officers.

As a direction for future research, the authors propose comparing the two sides of household budgets in coastal areas: on the one hand, how much higher residents’ expenses are due to the increased cost of living, and on the other, whether their incomes are also higher because tourism creates additional earning opportunities. It is almost certain that some households benefit while others lose out, making this the key relationship to measure in order to determine who ultimately profits from tourism and who bears its cost.

More details are available in the article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2026.104225

The open-access version of the article is available at: https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/1774.html

Objava Article on seasonal grocery inflation as a tourism-led externality published in Annals of Tourism Research pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

Objava Lecture by Prof. John Bachtler – The Future of Cohesion Policy: Opportunities and Risks of Reforms in the 2028-2034 Programming Period pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

Objava Director of IRMO Participated in an Expert Conference on Croatia’s Experience in the Use of EU Funds pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

Please register via the following link: https://forms.gle/CnFHnHB84VFjYXMR7

Professor John Bachtler will deliver a lecture entitled “The Future of Cohesion Policy: Opportunities & Risks in the Reforms for 2028-34”, addressing key challenges and future directions of EU cohesion policy in the context of evolving economic, political and institutional dynamics. Particular attention will be paid to post-2027 reforms, the role of cohesion policy in strengthening competitiveness and territorial cohesion, and its links to major EU priorities such as the green and digital transitions. The lecture will also address issues related to policy effectiveness, multi-level governance and the future allocation of EU funds.

John Bachtler is Professor Emeritus of European Policy Studies at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and former Director of the European Policies Research Centre (EPRC). He is one of Europe’s leading experts on EU cohesion policy, regional development and European integration. His research focuses on regional and industrial development, including EU cohesion and structural policies, territorial development, innovation (RTDI), foreign investment and policy evaluation. He has led major research programmes, including the IQ-Net programme on the management and delivery of cohesion policy across EU Member States.

He has coordinated and contributed to numerous international research and advisory projects, with a strong focus on policy effectiveness, governance and administrative capacity. His work spans more than 30 European countries and includes long-standing involvement in comparative research initiatives such as the European Regional Policy Research Consortium (EoRPA).

He has extensive experience as an expert adviser to national governments across Western, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as to key international institutions including the European Commission, European Parliament, Committee of the Regions, European Court of Auditors, OECD and Nordic Council of Ministers. He has also served as an expert adviser to 12 EU Council Presidencies on budgetary, policy and regulatory reform and was a member of the High-Level Group on the Future of Cohesion Policy.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association. A full list of his publications is available here: https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/en/persons/john-bachtler/publications

The lecture by Prof. Bachtler is organised as part of the EUROIMPACT project, supported by the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth of the Republic of Croatia.

Objava ANNOUNCEMENT: Lecture by Prof. John Bachtler – The Future of Cohesion Policy: Opportunities & Risks in the Reforms for 2028-34 pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

The chapter analyses Croatia’s experience with the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), a key financial mechanism of the European Union in the process of preparing countries for membership. Croatia joined the European Union in 2013 following a complex negotiation process, during which the IPA programme played an important role in strengthening administrative capacities, particularly through staff training and the development of institutional structures.

The research findings show that, despite positive developments, the limited financial scope of pre-accession programmes reduced their broader developmental impact. The fragmentation of projects and the lack of an integrated reform approach made it more difficult to address deeper structural challenges. In addition, the effectiveness of IPA assistance was influenced by both external and internal factors, including frequent programme revisions, complex public procurement rules, the 2009 economic crisis, and limited institutional capacity.

In conclusion, the chapter demonstrates that IPA significantly contributed to Croatia’s capacity to manage EU funds after accession, but that its design limitations and insufficient integration with comprehensive national reforms reduced its long-term effectiveness.

The book The Palgrave Handbook of European Union Enlargement and Pre-Accession Assistance examines the development, design, and effects of pre-accession assistance across different waves of EU enlargement. It places particular emphasis on the comparative analysis of the experiences of candidate countries and Member States, providing insights into similarities and differences across cases, as well as the role of pre-accession instruments in shaping public policies and countries’ developmental trajectories on their path to EU membership.

The chapter is available at:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-13349-6_4

Objava Book Chapter on Croatia’s Experience with IPA Assistance Published by Springer pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

The article analyses the key challenges faced by local government units in Croatia in using European Union funds. The findings identify four main challenges: limited human capacity, difficulties in ensuring financial sustainability, the administrative complexity of EU funds, and the influence of politics on the processes of EU fund management. The article contributes to the debate on the need for a comprehensive reform of the local self-government system in Croatia, advocating territorial amalgamation as one of the key mechanisms for strengthening absorption capacity. Such an approach is recognised as a prerequisite for more effective implementation of cohesion policy and the achievement of balanced regional development.

The article is available at:
https://doi.org/10.31297/hkju.26.1.1

Objava Article on Challenges Faced by Local Government Units in Using EU Funds Published pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

The central day of the conference was dedicated to discussions on the future Multiannual Financial Framework of the EU and the role of rural policies after 2027, with a focus on the LEADER/CLLD approach, territorial instruments, and the integrated development of rural areas.

As part of the panel “Rural Development Policy Today and after 2027 in Croatia,” Dr Puljiz delivered a presentation entitled “Croatian Experiences with EU Territorial Tools – Lessons for the Future,” in which he presented the development and application of the territorial approach within EU cohesion policy in Croatia.

The presentation particularly highlighted key implementation challenges, including coordination across sectors, administrative capacities, and the need for a stronger territorial approach in the forthcoming programming period.

The conference further confirmed the importance of an integrated and participatory approach to rural development, as well as the role of research institutions in providing an analytical basis for future territorial policies of the Republic of Croatia.

Objava Participation of IRMO in the International Conference on the Future of Rural Development Policy after 2027 pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.