The event, which was organised by the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation and is being held in the Croatian parliament, pooled representatives from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Croatia.
Seks said that the adjustment of local government to EU standards was not a goal in itself but an attempt to create conditions which will improve the position of local government and enable citizens to solve their problems in a simpler and more direct way.
This government wants to see a balanced development of all Croatian regions and sees local government units as partners in this project, a state secretary at the Central Office for Administration, Antun Palaric, said on the margins of the conference.
The Office has prepared a comprehensive programme of decentralisation for the 2004-2007 period, Palaric said, adding that the programme was in government procedure.
He also said that Croatia was preparing framework agreements with neighbouring countries to create room for transborder cooperation between units of local government.
The participants were also addressed by the head of the Foundation's office for Croatia and Slovenia, Christian Schmitz, while professor Peter Nitschke of Vechta University spoke about the political processes of regionalisation.
The office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Croatia supports, among other things, the development of democracy and the rule of law, and integration with Euro-Atlantic associations.