Regional development
Regional development policy promotes sustainable development in the broadest sense, realises development potentials and overcomes development obstacles in all Slovenian development regions, which are the basic functional territorial units for regional policy planning and the implementation of regional development tasks. There are 12 development regions in Slovenia, which are also statistical regions with the same name. In October 2018, the mayors of our region launched an initiative to rename the Obalno-Kraška Development Region as the Istra-Brkini-Kras Development Region.
Development decisions at the level of the development region are taken by the Regional Development Council and the Regional Council. General development tasks in the region are carried out by the regional development agency, which prepares, coordinates, monitors and evaluates the regional development programme and carries out certain other development tasks of the country at regional level in the public interest.
The regional development programme is implemented by means of a regional development agreement concluded between the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology and the Regional Development Council.
Regional Development Programme for the programming period 2021-2027
The Regional Development Programme is the basic strategic and programming document at regional level, which aligns the development objectives in the region and defines the instruments and assesses the resources to achieve them. The procedure for its preparation is laid down in the Regulation on Regional Development Programmes (Official Journal of the RS, No 69/2012, 78/2015) (the Regulation). In accordance with the Regulation and the Law on Coherent Regional Development (ZSRR-2) (Official Journal of the RS, No 20/11, 57/12 and 46/16), a decision on the preparation of the regional development programme and a programme for its preparation must first be adopted. The Regional Development Council adopted both documents at its 10th meeting on 30 November 2018.
A draft of the strategic part of the document was sent to the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology at the end of 2020, and a draft of the full document in October 2021. Following the receipt of comments from the ministries, the Regional Development Programme was completed. After receiving comments from the Ministries, a final document was prepared on 4 May 2022 and approved by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology on 11 May 2022.
Regional Spatial Plan
Space is a finite natural resource that needs to be managed with great care and integrity. It is a mirror of society, as all our actions, economic, social and individual, leave traces in space. It reflects the culture, identity and state of mind of society, our past and our future. It reflects the success of economic and social development and the quality of the management of spatial potential. Decisions on the construction and use of space are subject to rules that ensure the protection of space as a key resource for community development.
Spatial planning at regional level is crucial for a coherent regional and balanced spatial development of the country. The instrument of spatial planning at regional level is the Regional Spatial Plan (RSP), a spatial strategic act by which the State and municipalities, on the basis of the Spatial Development Strategy of Slovenia, its Action Programme, other development acts of the State and the development objectives of the EU, agree and coordinate on the spatial development of each development region, and define the essential development opportunities and orientations for municipal spatial planning acts.
The preparation of the first generation of regional spatial plans in Slovenia has started in 2023, with the regional development agencies acting as preparers. The Regional Development Centre Koper, as preparer, mainly performs organisational and co-ordinational tasks.
