"A series of alleged ethical breaches and disciplinary violations by judges led to proceedings against them, public procurement procedures remain a high-risk area for corruption, and lawsuits against journalists give rise to concern," state agency Hina said in its summary of the European Commission's report on the rule of law in Croatia.

European Commission on Tuesday published its second annual report on the rule of law in individual EU member countries, a new instrument that should help in early detection and prevention of problems relating to the rule of law.

The report covers four key areas: the justice system, the anti-corruption framework, media freedom and pluralism, and institutional issues relating to checks and balances.

The Commission said that the report only serves to describe the situation in each country without giving any recommendations, and is not meant to be interpreted as a raking method. Its purpose is to raise public awareness and promote open discussion between EU countries on rule of law issues both at national and at EU level.

Justice system

The Commission said that the Croatian justice system has seen improvements in reducing length of proceedings and backlogs, but that further improvements are still needed to address serious efficiency and quality challenges.

“The ongoing process for appointing the new Supreme Court President has given rise to controversy and to repeated disparaging public statements against judges”, and “the Constitutional Court stressed the importance of cooperation between state authorities” in addressing different views on the appointment of the Supreme Court President.

“The State Judicial Council made proposals to strengthen its role in selecting judges – an issue already raised in the 2020 Rule of Law Report.”

Without naming any names, the report says that “a series of alleged ethical breaches and disciplinary violations by judges led to proceedings before the State Judicial Council and Judges’ Councils, as well as to a criminal investigation.”

“The level of perceived judicial independence remains very low. Shortages in human resources of the State Judicial Council and the State Attorney’s Councils remain, even if some limited reinforcements have been allocated to verify the newly published asset declarations of judges and state attorneys,” the Commission said.

Anti-corruption framework

The reports noted that a new Strategy on the Prevention of Corruption for 2021-30 is in the public consultation process, envisaging the strengthening of the legal framework on prevention of conflict of interest, which is currently being drafted. Codes of Ethics for members of the Government and for members of Parliament are still missing, while “revolving doors” are only partially regulated.

“Detailed rules on lobbying activities remain to be introduced. While changes to the framework of political immunity of the members of government were announced, the legislative action has yet to follow. Public procurement procedures remain a high-risk area for corruption, and several cases have been discovered due to reporting by whistleblowers. The prosecution and investigation of high-level corruption continues, but due to protracted proceedings convictions are often delayed.”

Media freedom

“Croatia is updating its media legislation to transpose the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, with the revision of the Electronic Media Act to be adopted still in 2021. Concerns about the political independence of the Agency for Electronic Media persist,” the Commission said.

“Croatia has a solid framework on transparency of media ownership information and envisages further improvements. While state advertising is partly regulated by the Electronic Media Act, stakeholders report it often undermines the political independence of media outlets which are economically dependent on such funding, notably at local level… A legal framework for the protection of journalists is in place, but they continue to face threats. In particular, the high number of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) targeting journalists continues to be a serious concern. Access to information is ensured by law, but delays in the processing of requests from journalists persist.”

Checks and balances

The Commission said that although public consultations are embedded in legislative procedures, stakeholders perceive citizen participation to be a formality rather than substantive.

They added that that Croatia had not declared a state of emergency for the Covid-19 pandemic, so restrictions imposed to contain the pandemic were based on the twice-amended law on containing infectious diseases.

“The Constitutional Court has reviewed these measures, finding that they were compatible with the Constitution and also ruled that Parliament should find ways to guarantee its functions during the pandemic.”