In the last activity in the mandate 2014 - 2019, MP Picula appropriately dedicated to the islands and islanders, by issuing the long-awaited Croatian edition of the so-called Habitability manual.
This is an important step in thinking about island development at the local level, but also a potential tool for changing the approach of national and European development policies. Therefore, Representative Picula is particularly proud that the Croatian version is the first translation of the Swedish original. Although the word 'habitability' does not officially exist in the Croatian language, following the advice of linguists, the Swedish and English versions of 'Habitability' have been transferred to Croatian following the tradition of accepting Latinized expressions. Therefore, instead of literal or figurative translation of the word, 'habitability' was chosen - a new approach to assessing the development of island communities and planning development through 45 new, island-adapted indicators.
European island policies have undergone a significant transformation in the last ten years. From Brussels' 'blind spot' to niche island policies. When the MEP first entered the European Parliament in 2013, there was no formal or informal body in the architecture of European institutions dealing with islands. Today, the Intergroup for Seas, Rivers, Islands, and Coastal Areas has a ten-year tradition, the third mandate of the Secretariat of the Clean Energy for EU Islands Initiative is ongoing, a Memorandum was signed in Split on the establishment of a permanent institutional framework for decarbonizing island economies, islands are specifically highlighted in the European Green Deal, and the importance of Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union is undisputed.
Concept of Habitability, however, it opens the door to a new chapter in promoting a new European policy towards islands. The concept finally offers a meaningful alternative to the 'one size fits all' approach that largely ignores the specificities of island communities summarized in 'islandness'. Every islander knows that 100 EUR on the island is worth up to 20% less than on the nearest comparable mainland. Habitability, created precisely by islanders, takes into account such specificities and offers the possibility of a new way of measuring the development of isolated communities using specially adapted indicators.
On the occasion of the manual release, the representative emphasized that he is 'proud that the experiences from Visa and Silba played an important role in the habitability and that Croatian islanders, supported by my Office and the Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, participated in the development of a concept that truly has the potential to seriously improve the access to island development policies at all levels of governance. There is still a lot of work ahead of us. However, we have all the necessary tools at our disposal and I firmly believe that in the coming years we will be writing a new and successful chapter of European and Croatian island policies.'
You can download the second edition of the habitability manual HERE
