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British Embassy Zagreb and the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Croatia co-hosted mini-conference on better regulation. The event gathered participants from both public and private sector as well as NGOs. The objective was to share the UK and Croatia鈥檚 experience on dealing with regulatory burden and to explore new avenues to continue already strong collaboration in this field.

HMA Dalgleish in his opening words touched on bilateral cooperation on better regulation so far saying that the conference is a continuation of dialogue on a topic that is equally important to both countries.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Martina Dali膰 talked about her ministry鈥檚 efforts to reduce regulatory burden in Croatia mainly through the Action Plan that was launched in January. Minister Dali膰 also used the opportunity to inform the audience that the Ministry had launched on that day a Register of Non-Tax Levies. The Register contains a list of 547 levies that businesses and tax payers have to pay mainly to local administration bodies. Minister Dali膰鈥檚 objective is to reduce non-tax levies by 30% over next three years.

Ian Bishop, Assistant Director from the UK鈥檚 Better Regulation Executive talked about the UK鈥檚 approach to better regulation and how the framework had evolved since inception in 2011. Ian鈥檚 presentation placed particular focus on the challenges all stakeholders had to face in reducing regulatory burdens. The audience also learned about concepts such as One-in, One鈥搊ut which has now grown into One鈥搃n, Three-Out, Red Tape Challenge and financial reductions on businesses that had been made (2.2B per annum). Ian concluded his presentation but saying that the UK better regulation framework had achieved a lot and has driven genuine improvements for business but emphasised that it will continue to require the right focus and in particular mature relationships within a transparent and rules based system.