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European Standards for Public Service Codes of Ethics and their Application in Croatian Local Government

This paper deals with the ethics infrastructure in Croatian local and regional self-government units. Important steps toward the development of ethical standards at the central state level were done at the end of the 2000s as part of a wider process of Europeanization, while local and regional units are mostly lagging behind. Because information on this issue on local and regional level are scarce, the authors conducted a research analysis of the extent of local and regional units’ codes of ethics/conduct conformity with the European standards. Additionally, substantial part of ethics infrastructure, e.g. the role and scope of ethics bodies and the possibility for public scrutiny were analyzed. Research findings showed that only approximately one quarter of Croatian local and regional units adopted CoE/Cs and that they are partially aligned with the Code of conduct for public officials recommended by the Council of Europe, but more in formal way and less substantially. Too normative and coercive approach indicates a lack of understanding or unbelief in preventive role of the CoE/Cs. The results of the research further point to the reluctance of local and regional self-government bodies to facilitate public scrutiny through the use of information and communication technology. Additional efforts to better conformity with EU standards should be made at institutional, normative, organizational and educational level.

Codes of Ethics/Conduct, European standards, Local and Regional Self-Government units, Croatia.

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