The June elections for the European Parliament cost €9.2 million in Croatia, according to a preliminary report from the State Electoral Commission (DIP).

Due to various rising costs, this is €1.8 million more compared to the same elections in May 2019.

The amount of €9.2 million is not complete, as it still lacks some expenses, such as the compensation amounts that will be received by political parties that won one of the 12 Croatian seats in Brussels.

A total of €159,000 has been allocated for this purpose, namely €11,415  per won seat and €6,637 for cases where a party or independent candidate does not win a seat in the European Parliament but receives at least 5 per cent of the valid votes.

However, to actually receive this amount, the candidates in the European elections must have their election finances pass DIP’s evaluation.

If DIP has no objections, the HDZ will receive €68,490 for six seats won in the European Parliament, the SDP will receive €45,660 for four, and the We Can! party and the Homeland Movement party, which each have one member of the European Parliament, Gordan Bosanac and Stephen Nikola Bartulica respectively, will each receive €11,415.

Consolatory compensation for IDS coalition

The IDS-led coalition, headed by former MEP Valter Flego, should receive consolatory compensation of €6,637, as it crossed the five per cent threshold (5.61 per cent) but did not win a seat in the European Parliament.

Looking at the structure of the June election costs, the majority, almost seven million euros, consists of fees for the work of election bodies, with a smaller portion, €2.2 million, being material costs.

Of the election body costs, the majority, €5.2 million, are fees for the work of polling committees, followed by fees for municipal (almost €880,000), city (€353,000), county, and City of Zagreb electoral commissions (€138,000).

These figures also include €380,000 for fees to staff who worked on IT, administrative, technical, and support tasks in the electoral commissions and the Tax Administration.

This year’s election costs exceed €22 million

Half of the €2.2 million material costs are related to APIS’s IT support for the elections (1.14 million euros), while the printing and distribution of ballots and the creation of other election materials cost 592,000 euros.

300 candidates from 25 lists competed for the 12 Croatian seats in the European Parliament in the June 9 elections. Slightly more than 3.7 million voters could express their will at 6,751 polling stations in the country and abroad, where, unlike in parliamentary elections, voting took place only on one day.

When the incomplete costs of the European Parliament elections are combined with the costs of the April elections for the Croatian Parliament, which reached almost €13 million, it is clear that Croatia has spent more than €22 million on elections this year. The presidential elections are scheduled for the end of this year.