Cacic was unanimously elected to chair the Alps Adriatic Council in 2018 and 2019 at a regular session of that body in Klagenfurt, Austria, on Wednesday. He is to succeedPeter Kaiser, prime minister of the Austrian province of Carinthia.
Varazdin County has thus become the first Croatian region to chair the Alps Adriatic Alliance.
Recalling that the Alps Adriatic Alliance had become a symbol of good neighbourly cooperation over the past 39 years, Cacic said that it primarily wished to serve as an example of inter-regional cooperation and again assume a role in opening Europe to eastern neighbours.
Varazdin County joined the Alliance in 2013. Its other Croatian members are Istria, Karlovac, Koprivnica-Krizevci, Krapina-Zagorje and Medjimurje counties. Primorje-Gorski Kotar County is expected to join soon.
The Austrian members of the Alliance are Carinthia, Styria and Burgenland while Vas County is the Hungarian member of the organisation and Slovenian members are all municipalities and towns that are members of the Association of Municipalities and Towns of Slovenia.