The Academy for Political Development, in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, organized from 6th to 8th of October a three-day-seminar "Croatia in the 21. century – development prospects and challenges" in Stubičke Toplice. The seminar was opened by Branislav Bibić, Director of the Academy, Luka Đurić from the Konrad Adanauer Foundation and Uwe M?ller from the Council of Europe.

In the attempt to justify seminar’s ambitious title, the 2006 Class that was accompanied by Academy’s Alumnae provided for intense three days of presentations, discussion and group work.

Interesting and thought-provoking lecturers gave a high incentive for questions and discussion. On the first day, Vladimir Drobnjak, Chief Negotiator in the Negotiations of Croatian Accession to the EU and Martina Dalić, Deputy Chief Negotiator and State Secretary of the State Development Strategy Office have shed a light on the current government development strategy and activities, especially in the context of European integration. While Mr. Drobnjak reported on the negotiation process and the European orientation in Central and Eastern Europe, Ms. Dalić discussed the Strategic Development Framework 2006 – 2013, produced by her office. (This document is also available on this web site.)

Professor Vlatko Cvrtila from the Faculty of Political Science gave a presentation regarding Croatia’s NATO membership prospects. Presentation posed a question "Does Croatia need NATO? ", and provoked debate that gave strong arguments both for and against NATO membership.

On Saturday morning, Željko Lovrinčević of the Zagreb Economics Institute lectured regarding Croatian economic strategy and policy. Mr. Lovrinčević tried to point out to the Croatian position in the region. He gave a comparative analysis of the national economies in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as a SWOT analysis of the Croatian economy. Discussing various possible development paths, Mr. Lovrinčević re-emphasized the necessity of coordinated economic and social policy.

A panel discussion on the role of social development followed in these lines. Tin Gazivoda, Coordinator of the UN Human Rights Centre and Ivan Miklenić, Editor-in-chief of "Glas Koncila" (a prominent Catholic weekly) opened the panel on the social development. Tin Gazivoda focused his presentation on formulating a possible strategy for the development of civil society. Miklenić discussed the role of religious groups in social development. The discussion that followed has also dealt with related issues: current initiatives inside of the civil society, role the civil society can play in decentralization, and financing and transparency of financing of various religious organizations.

A development scenarios workshop on Sunday was the final activity of this seminar, as well as of the entire 2006 course. Seminar participants, divided into four teams and moderated by team leaders Marina Škrabalo, Marko Kovač, Maša Kovačević and Nataša Rohatinski, also 2006 participants, have formulated four different Croatian development strategies based on scenarios of Croatia as "The sleeping beauty", "The Balkan Tiger", "The Nature Park of the EU " and " The Eastern-European Silicon Valley". 
Four strategies were presented to the entire group, and thoroughly discussed. Participants agreed on a common strategy framework. Draft of this document was made; a final Class 2006 Croatian development strategy will soon be available on our web site.