Osijek-Baranja County Prefect Vladimir Sisljagic told a news conference in the eastern Croatian city of Osijek on Wednesday that he had sent an open letter to the European Union's leaders to express his dissatisfaction over the Croatian government's intention to divide Croatia into two statistical regions.
He accused the government of having made such decision in secrecy and without holding a public discussion.
Sisljagic, the leader of the regional HDSSB party, said that such division would be detrimental to all five Slavonian counties in the east of the country, which would end up in one region together with the City of Zagreb.
In that region there will be "the City of Zagreb with the GDP of 125% of the average GDP in the EU and also five Slavonian counties with the GDP of only 34% of the EU average," Sisljagic said.
He said that he was in favour of arranging the country into five regions, with one of them being the City of Zagreb, and with the five Slavonian counties making up another one of those regions.
Sisljagic went on to say that the division proposed by the government would lead to the overnight statistical increase of the five Slavonian counties' GDP from 34% to 64% of the EU average,
He said he had forwarded his letter to the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Regional Policy Commissioner Johannes Hahn and the head of the EU Delegation to Croatia, Paul Vandoren, asking them for the explanation of the EU regional policy.
Earlier this year Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic dismissed criticisms that the new division of Croatia into two statistical regions would reduce the east's possibility to draw money from European Union funds, saying that Zagreb's participation in the funds could not hurt less developed regions.
