RELATIONS BETWEEN CROATIAN GOVT, NON-GOVT ORGANISATIONS

ZAGREB, April 18 (Hina) - Non-government and non-profit organisations should shoulder an important share of responsibility and commitments on Croatia's social scene, and problems between those organisations and the government should be solved through dialogue, Croatian Vice-Premier Zeljka Antunovic said on Wednesday at a meeting with representatives of some 30 non-government organisations. The non-governmental organisations, which participated in the drawing up of a programme of cooperation between the Government and Croatia's non-governmental and non-profit sector, were told by Antunovic that much remained to be done to make Croatia a country with a governing rather than ruling authority, where civil society would be more important and more influential. Antunovic said it was encouraging that the programme had been drawn up together by the Government and non-governmental organisations. The programme envisages a cooperation based on partnership, transparency on both sides and autonomy of non-governmental organisations. Most non-governmental workers said they were satisfied that the cooperation with the government had started. Speaking about problems hampering their work, they pointed to difficult conditions of financing, red tape, lack of understanding for their projects on the part of local authorities and the fact that non- government organisations were not categorised. (hina) rml