Croatia at CEE Digital Summit in Warsaw: Stronger links between Central and Eastern Europe for greater competitiveness and EU’s digital future

Director General for the Development of National Information Infrastructure and Electronic Services Nikola Modrušan and Ms Maja Vitaljić from the Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation participated in the seventh edition of the CEE Digital Summit Warsaw 2026

The event brought together representatives of governments, the technology sector and EU institutions from 14 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

The central goal of the summit organised within the framework of the CEE Digital Coalition was to strengthen regional cooperation and ensure that the voice of this part of Europe is heard more strongly in European discussions on technology, digital policies and global competitiveness.

Croatia is a leader in the digitalisation of public services

As part of the summit, Director General Nikola Modrušan participated as a speaker in the high-profile panel “ONE COMPETITIVE EUROPE: Stronger Position Through Simple Rules”. The discussion focused on the streamlining of European digital legislation to boost innovation and economic growth.

During the panel, the Director General pointed out that the state administration can do a lot on its own to reduce bureaucracy, without waiting for changes to the umbrella European legislation.

‘In Croatia, we have proven that most of the administrative burden can be removed through our own digital initiatives and interoperability. Through the government cloud - the Shared Services Centre (CDU), e-Citizens and mCitizens platforms and the imminent full implementation of the 'Once Only' principle (OOTS), our administration has largely taken on the burden of collecting data and simplifying the life of citizens’, he said.

He also warned about the challenges of over-regulation and the gap between the adoption of European laws and the slow technical implementation in practice, stressing the example of the introduction of the EU Digital Wallet (eIDAS 2.0), where Croatia has reached technological readiness, but its wider application depends on lengthy harmonisation at EU level.

Government as "Early Adopter" of new technologies

Particular emphasis was placed on the role of the public sector as a driver of innovation.

‘The government must change its way of thinking, overcome the traditional fear of failure and become an “early adopter”. In Croatia, we are currently strongly exploring the concepts of AI sandboxes (test environments) to enable technology companies and GovTech startups to solve real public administration problems. The combination of artificial intelligence (AI), AI factories and High-Performance Computing (HPC) is the direction in which the Croatian public administration is already heading’, said Director Modrušan.

Croatia's strong support for the CEE Digital Coalition

On the sidelines of the summit, the Croatian delegation held a number of useful bilateral talks with colleagues from the surrounding countries, including ministers and senior government representatives from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania and Latvia.

The Croatian side pointed out that it fully and strongly supports the CEE Digital Coalition initiative. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe have enormous technological potential and it is the common position of all participants that this region must not only be a passive participant, but must actively co-create Europe's digital transformation.

The Polish hosts and the organisers of the summit particularly stressed the importance of bringing together governments and digital industry from the region at one table, and the Croatian delegation confirmed its readiness to launch concrete cross-border digital projects that will further strengthen the competitiveness of the whole region and its impact on the future digital policies of the European Union. 

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