State Archives Financing within Programmes of Public Needs in the Cultural Portfolio of the Republic of Croatia

U članku su prezentirani rezultati analize financiranja državnih arhiva proračunskim sredstvima namijenjenim financiranju javnih potreba u kulturi Republike Hrvatske u posljednjem desetogodišnjem razdoblju. Dane su nove spoznaje o financiranju arhivâ, što se uobičajeno navodi među ključnim čimbenicima (uz prostorne i ljudske resurse) koji utječu na stanje arhivske službe u Hrvatskoj. Rezultati analize sistematizirani su u obliku grafikona i tabličnih prikaza. Interpretirani su u širem kontekstu kretanja relativnoga udjela Ministarstva kulture u državnom proračunu Republike Hrvatske te ulaganja u programe drugih kulturnih djelatnosti. Između ostaloga, rezultati pokazuju vrstu, opseg i kontinuitet aktivnosti na koje su arhivi u sustavu javne arhivske službe stavljali naglasak, te njihovu podudarnost s osnovnim zadaćama arhivâ. Zajedno s pregledom kretanja iznosa odobrenih sredstava, takvi su podatci i jedan od pokazatelja odnosa države prema arhivskoj djelatnosti. Mogućnost praktične primjene rezultata istraživanja je u tome što daju podlogu za preispitivanje pristupa državnih arhiva u planiranju arhivskih programa, kao i metodologije financiranja od strane mjerodavnoga ministarstva.The article presents the results of state archives financing within programmes of public needs in the cultural portfolio of the Republic of Croatia during the last ten-year period. It is a contribution to the issue of state archives financing in general, which is usually listed among key factors (with spatial and human resources) that determine and condition the position of contemporary archival service in Croatia. The results are systemised in the form of graphs and tables. They are interpreted in the wider context of trends in the change of the Ministry of Culture’s proportion in the total state budget and investments in programmes of other cultural services. Inter alia, the results demonstrate which activities, to what extent and in which continuity (short-term, long-term) were in focus of state archives in Croatia, as well as how they corresponded with their core tasks. Together with an analysis of the total amount of appropriations, such data are also one of the indicators of state’s attitude towards archival service. The analysis shows that in the period 2010-2018, within public calls for financing programmes of public needs in culture, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia approved to state archives 1209 programmes in six categories: archives, international cultural cooperation, computerisation, digitisation, investment aid and preservation of immovable cultural goods. The total amount of appropriations for archival programmes was around 87,8 million HRK, which is 5,87% of total amount of appropriations provided for all programmes within those six categories. In the comparison with the average annual appropriations from the Ministry of Culture’s budget in all cultural services and their programmes, the average annual appropriations in the programmes of state archives were 3,43%. They depended on the Ministry of Culture’s proportion in the total annual state budget in that period. Analysis also demonstrates that three largest users of appropriations were the Croatian State Archives (32,05%), the State Archives in Dubrovnik (18,36%) and the State Archives in Zagreb (6,16%). All other state archives achieved individual shares less than 5 %. Such data illustrates disparities between state archives in the number, but also in the variety of applied programmes. Such disparities are the result of specific possibilities of each state archives (such as spatial and human resources), but also the consequence of the absence of long-term planning and development strategies for the archival service in Croatia in general. Such situation should be improved by the National Archival Service Development Plan, adoption of which by the Government of the Republic of Croatia is intended in the new Law on Archives and Archival Institutions (Official Gazette of the Republic of Croatia 61/2018). Besides appropriations from the national budget within described programmes of public needs in culture, state archives in Croatia are in front of the challenge to improve financing from other sources. The potential for such improvement is a more active approach to the use of the EU funds, i.e. better positioning of the archival and other cultural services in the EU multiannual financial framework (MFF) for the 2021-2027 period. Also, the results and services developed within archival programmes should be usable as new resources, i.e. potential sources of new income.