On May 23^rd and 24^th, 2024, the 14^th International Scientific and Professional Conference “Development of Public Administration” was held in Šibenik, organized by the University of Applied Sciences “Lavoslav Ružička” in Vukovar and the Šibenik University of Applied Sciences. The central theme of this year’s conference, which brought together leading scholars and practitioners in the field of public administration, was “Public Administration 2.0 – Look into the Future.”

The conference was opened with a keynote lecture by dr. sc. Ivan Malenica, Member of the Croatian Parliament and Chairman of the Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders, and Political System, and the recent Minister of Justice and Public Administration of the Republic of Croatia, on the topic “Reforming the Civil Service System as a Guarantee for a More Efficient Public Administration.”

On the first day of the conference, a round table discussion on “Reforming the Civil Service System in the Republic of Croatia” was held, featuring Višnja Tafra, Director of the Directorate for the Civil Service System, Danijela Gaube, Director of the Directorate for Human Rights, National Minorities, and Ethics, Associate Professor Mihovil Škarica from the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, and Marija Dil Bračić from the Union of State and Local Government Employees of the Republic of Croatia.

The panelists discussed innovations in the civil service system, presenting the new legal framework and emphasizing the role of unions as social partners, with a focus on the challenges and opportunities for further urban development and the use of European funds.

On the second day of the conference, individual presentations of papers were held in eight separate sessions, with 139 authors from Croatia and abroad (Germany, Ukraine, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg, Nigeria) presenting a total of 67 papers.

The presentations covered a wide range of topics in modern administrative law and administrative science, including labor and civil service law, public sector financing, tax law, data protection, the right to access information, public policies and public services, and judicial and peaceful dispute resolution.

Special attention was given to topics on digitalization in state services and the public sector, as well as the application of artificial intelligence and information security.

The conference was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration of the Republic of Croatia, with the support of the Faculty of Law, University of Rijeka, the Faculty of Sociology and Law of the “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” from Ukraine, the Faculty of State and European Studies of the Nova Univerza University from Slovenia, the State School for Public Administration, and Novi informator.