engleski

Towards more efficient civil security system in Croatia on the road to the EU

The paper gives a brief overview of legal and institutional aspects of civil security system in Croatia and deals with key strengths and weakness of the system in protecting citizens from natural and man-made disasters such as floods, fires, droughts, dangerous waste management and specific threats, such as mines. Croatian system represents a combination of all hazards and specific threats approach in the case of mentioned disasters. Although the authority and responsibility for crisis preparedness and response rests on local level, the delegation of responsibilities takes combination of bottom up and top-down approach. The system has well trained and equipped forces particularly in fire-fighting and has achieved comparative advantages in specific areas, such as demining. On the other hand, the system is facing lack of coordination, resulting from weaknesses in legal basis which is currently in revision and it is not fully transparent regarding the costs, particularly at regional and local levels. Although Croatia has made a significant progress in civil security reforms, there are still many areas where additional efforts are needed on its way to the EU membership.

civil security; threats; crisis management; strengths; weaknesses; effectiveness; transparency; European Union

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