Dario Zurovec, Mayor of Sveta Nedelja: A lot more investments would be done in our city if government looses some regulations or decentralizes regulatory decision making

“Our city uses EU funds mostly in areas such as energy efficiency and environment protection.”

Dario Zurovec was born on 25 November 1986. He has a master's degree in electrical engineering, and until his election as mayor of Sveta Nedelja, he worked as a programmer at Ericsson Nikola Tesla d.d. in the position of development and service engineer in OSS. 

In 2017, Zurovec ran as an independent candidate, and was elected mayor of Sveta Nedelja in the second round with 53.17 percent of the vote. He was one of the youngest mayors elected in the 2017 local elections.

Please describe the city of Sveta Nedelja in a few sentences.

Beautiful small city near Zagreb – capital of Croatia, with lot of business opportunities, good transportation connections, beautiful nature and hardworking but very nice people.

You are a very young and active mayor. Would you share with our audience what are the biggest challenges in your everyday work?

Biggest challenges are obstacles in the form of lots of governmental regulations that are slowing down private and public investments. A lot more investments would be done in our city if government looses some regulations or decentralizes regulatory decision making.

Croatia has been a member of the European Union for only 5 years, but your municipality has already managed to implement several EU funded projects. Tell more about how they improved the quality of life in Sveta Nedelja.

Our city uses EU funds mostly in areas such as energy efficiency and environment protection. Some of the projects that are done or are in progress are improving energy efficiency of public buildings such as kindergartens and schools which results in energy and money savings and higher quality educational space for children and educational personnel. Also, we are using EU funds for improving waste management capacities and to educate our residents about sustainable waste management. EU funds will be also helpful in procurement of electric bicycles so we can promote green transport as healthy, cheaper and environmental friendly. 

Could you share others good practices from your municipality?

We increased number of scholarships. We used input information provided from our companies on what kind of workers and professions they prefer or need. We also constructed more children playgrounds (8 to be more specific) throughout the city. Conditions are made for fast realization of investments regarding paperwork and infrastructure needed. 

How do you evaluate the initiative of an unified platform for European municipalities and its main goal to keep European citizens informed about what is taking place in the European Union? How the portal can be useful to you and to the citizens of Sveta Nedelja?

It is very good idea considering that citizens mostly hear only about “big” news but they rarely see news about small good stories that have positive impact in their local community in some other EU country. So this could be a good way to inform people about best practices in some other parts of Europe and that can be very useful to public administration and to businesses and private citizens.   

Which are the main goals and good examples you plan to develop in the near future?

Introducing tax cuts regarding local taxes, improving local public transport, introducing new ways of cooperation between administration and local businesses, increasing public investments in infrastructure with regard to environmental issues such as energy efficiency of public buildings, transport and street lights, and sustainable waste management.

To find out more about Sveta Nedelja, visit the profile of the municipality.