Croatia

Overview and recent developments

Croatia has made great strides in strengthening its regulatory policy framework. In 2017, a new RIA law entered into force, requiring an initial RIA to be carried out for all primary laws. The law does not include subordinate regulations. A full RIA has to be conducted for laws with a potentially high impact, requiring regulators to assess a broad range of environmental and social impacts. If deemed necessary, a test analysing the impacts on SMEs is undertaken which focuses mostly on administrative costs. In practice, however, RIAs are not of sufficient quality due to a lack of analytical capacity in ministries. Croatia could consider creating analytical centres with “RIA champions” in the most important ministries in order to strengthen capacities.

Croatia systematically engages with stakeholders. It makes use of ad hoc working groups including representatives from civil society, businesses and academia early in the process. Major draft regulations are then published for consultation on the interactive consultation portal e-Savjetovanja for a minimum of 30 days. RIA statements are also made available alongside major draft primary laws for comments. The body drafting the regulation has to publicly address all comments received during the consultation period.

Ex post reviews of regulation are limited to administrative burden reduction and ad hoc recommendations from working groups. In 2017, the Ministry of Economy introduced the “Action Plan for Administrative Burden Reduction” with the purpose of creating investment incentives and providing easier market access. Croatia should envisage targeted ex post reviews focusing on the performance of regulations (“fitness checks”) or on particular sectors to improve the quality of regulations.

Institutional setup for regulatory oversight

The Government Legislation Office (GLO) located in the centre of government is the central co-ordination body for RIA. It reviews all preliminary assessments and full RIA reports, provides advice and can ask administrators to revise RIAs if the quality is deemed insufficient. The GLO is also responsible for ensuring the legal quality of regulations and for preparing the Annual Legislative Activities Plan. The Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts reviews the impacts of regulations on small- and medium-sized businesses by conducting an SME-test. The ministry co-ordinates the “Action Plan for Administrative Burden Reduction” and provides guidance and training to civil servants on the SME-test and the Standard Cost Model. The Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs co-ordinates the central consultation portal e-Savjetovanja.

Requirements to use regulatory management tools for EU-made laws: Croatia
Stakeholder engagement		Regulatory impact assessment
Development stage
The government facilitates the engagement of domestic stakeholders in the European Commission’s consultation process	No
Negotiation stage
Stakeholder engagement is required to define the negotiating position for EU directives/regulations	No	RIA is required to define the negotiating position for EU directives/regulations	No
Consultation is required to be open to the general public	No
Transposition stage
Stakeholder engagement is required when transposing EU directives	Yes	RIA is required when transposing EU directives	Yes
The same requirements and processes apply as for domestically made laws	Yes	The same requirements and processes for RIA apply as for domestically made laws	Yes
Consultation is required to be open to the general public	Yes	RIA includes a specific assessment of provisions added at the national level beyond those in the EU directives	No
		RIA distinguishes between impacts stemming from EU requirements and additional national implementation measures	No
Source: Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance Survey 2017, http://oe.cd/ireg.

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