The programme, entitled Shaping Regional Policy, Delivering EU Funds, focused on strengthening institutional capacities for strategic planning of regional and local development, EU funds programming and the implementation of development investments. Particular emphasis was placed on sharing knowledge and experience relevant to preparing EU candidate countries for future membership. 

Jakša Puljiz delivered a series of lectures on the evolution and functioning of EU cohesion policy, territorial approaches to development, and proposed changes under the EU’s new Multiannual Financial Framework for 2028–2034. He also presented Croatia’s regional development policy framework, including support instruments for less-developed areas, integrated territorial investments and the role of regional development coordinators. His lectures on strategic planning highlighted the importance of linking development priorities to funding sources, preparing high-quality project pipelines and ensuring effective coordination across different levels of government. 

The lectures and discussions also addressed the broader development benefits of cohesion policy, including the strengthening of institutional capacities and public investment, alongside challenges related to implementation effectiveness and the achievement of long-term development impacts. 

The Academy combined expert lectures, interactive workshops and group activities with study visits to Šibenik and the islands of Zlarin and Prvić. Participants explored examples of investments in cultural heritage, sustainable tourism and local infrastructure, while gaining insights into the work of Šibenik-Knin County and its regional development agency in preparing and implementing EU-funded projects. 

Through its participation in the Regional Development Academy, IRMO contributed to the international exchange of knowledge and experience in cohesion policy, regional development and European integration, while strengthening cooperation with institutions from EU candidate countries. 

More information: 

• Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA) – Report on the Regional Development Academy 

 Photo: ReSPA

Objava IRMO Participates in the International Regional Development Academy  pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

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Objava ERSA CROATIA CONFERENCE: “EU Regional Development Dialogues: From Policy to Research” pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

Information about the conference is accessible at: https://www.regionalstudies.org/events/2026cee/

Objava Hrvoje Butković Participated at the Conference Marking the 100th Anniversary of the Poznań University of Economics and Business pojavila se prvi puta na Euroimpakt.

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.