One of the fundamental pillars of modern democracies is a developed civil society, which is additionally achieved via open dialogue, cooperation and partnership between citizens, OCDs, or the interested public in general on the one side and public and state institutions on the other. By accepting such an active role of citizens, openness and publicity as the fundamental values, state and public institutions show their readiness to take efficient measures of consultations with the interested public in the process of adopting laws, regulations and other policies.
The normative framework for the implementation of consultation procedure with the interested public in the Republic of Croatia has been determined by
the Law on Right to Access to Information (Official Gazette 25/2013),
the Code of Practice on Consultation with the interested public in the process of adopting laws, other regulations and policies (Official Gazette 140/2009) and
Amendments and Addendums to the Law on Right to Access to Information (Official Gazette 85/2015).
The Law on Right to Access to Information, i.e. its Amendments and Addendums from July 2015, anticipate
the obligation of the state bodies responsible for drafting bills and by-laws to publish a draft bill or draft of any other regulation (which is in the process of public consultation with the interested parties) on the state central website for consultations with the public, usually
for the period of 30 days, along with the reasons for their adoption, as well as the goals that will be achieved by this consultation.
Also, after the conducted consultation, the state bodies are obliged to inform the interested public on the accepted and rejected comments via the state central website for consultations with the public, on which they have to publish
a report on the conducted consultation with the interested public that they present to the Government of the Republic of Croatia.
Report on the Conducted Consultations with the Interested Public in Procedures of Adopting Laws, Other Regulations and Acts in 2013
On its session held on November 21
st 2009, the Croatian Government adopted the
Code of Practice on Consultation with the interested public in the process of adopting laws, other regulations and policies (Official Gazette 140/2009). Having accepted the Code, the Government gave its Office for Cooperation with NGOs a three-month deadline (after the publication of the Code in the Official Gazette) for drafting the Guidelines for the appliance of the Code, as well as the program for methodical education of the consultation coordinators who had yet to be nominated within the state bodies and Government offices. The great emphasis was placed on the coordinators to be those who are always available and who dispose of the key information on the current procedure / draft, in order to make a connection between the interested public and the competent body drafting a bill or any other regulation or document. The guidelines were published in November 2010, and its online version can be downloaded from
here.
Having adopted the Code, the Republic of Croatia has joined the group of developed European democracies which have set clear standards and measures of consultations between state bodies and the interested public in the process of making new laws, other regulations and policies. The standards and measures predicted by the Code are mainly the following: availability, preciseness and duration of consultations; informing on the consultation effects, as well as the coordination of consultation procedures among the state bodies, i.e. the improvement of the operational quality of state institutions in general.
The consultation coordinator at the Croatian Government Office for Cooperation with NGO:
Ms Iva Rašić Puš, M.A.
iva.rasic@udruge.vlada.hr
The Government of the Republic of Croatia
Office for Cooperation with NGOs
Opatička street 4
10000 Zagreb
phone: + 385 1 459 98 10
fax: + 385 1 459 98 11
