New Law on Associations adopted in Croatian Parliament

The new Law on Associations was adopted after long public discussion that started in February 2012 with consultations on challenges in ten year long implementation of the Law on Associations. Results of the consultation showed a number of deficiencies in existing laws that made the operation of associations difficult. Lack of clear provisions on managing association and its bodies, joining of associations in alliances, membership, assembly, respecting the principle of democratic representation and democratic expression of the will of its members in reference to internal organization of the association, acquisition and distribution of assets and performing economic activities economic activities in practice often led to different interpretations and unequal applications of the Law’s provisions.  Further on, imprecise provisions on supervision and also too complex process of  liquidation and deletion of associations from the Register of Associations, result in almost 51 400 registered associations and only few hundreds deleted in ten years since the Registry was established, which surely doesn’t reflect the real situation.