The euro adoption in Croatia will not increase party membership fees, and the amount required to be paid by members will be converted from the kuna into the euro at the fixed exchange rate of HRK 7.53 for €1, according to replies from political parties to an enquiry by the Croatian state news agency Hina.

Membership fees are one of the main sources of funding for political parties.

€1.5m collected in membership fees in 2021

For instance, in 2021, the 25 parliamentary parties collected 11.7 million kuna (€1.5 million) in fee revenue, and the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) alone collected two thirds of that amount (7.5 million kuna or €1 million).

The HDZ has said in its reply to Hina’s enquiry that the annual standard membership fee was 120 kuna and after the euro changeover, the membership fee will be €15.92.

The political party also underscores that it has different fee rates depending on the status of members. Thus, undergraduates, unemployed persons and members whose pension or wage is under €464.53 are exempted from paying the fee.

On the other hand, the annual membership fee of office-holders at all levels of state and local government amounts to 5% of their net monthly wage.

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) ranks second in terms of the amount collected from membership fees (2million kuna in 2021).

The Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) followed with 483,000 kuna, the Most party collected 287,000 kuna in fee revenue, and the Croatian People’s Party  (HNS) 282,000 kuna, while the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) collected 232,000 kuna.

The SDP secretary-general Vedran Babic has informed Hina that it will not raise the membership fees.

This opposition party has about 20,000 members and manages to collect around 2.5 million kuna in fee revenue annually, according to Babic.

This party also has different fee rates depending on the status of members. For example, members of the European Parliament from the SDP ranks, and some of its deputies in the parliament have paid an annual fee of 3,000 (€398).

The members with monthly wages between 16,000 kuna and 20,000 have paid 1,300 kuna annually for membership. This amount converted into the euro is €173. The lowest annual fee is €6.6.

The IDS party has so far the standard fee of 100 kuna (€13).

The Mozemo! party reported that its lowest fee expressed in the kuna was 10 kuna and as of 2023 it will be €1.2.

The DP party reported that the amount collected from membership fees in 2021 was 62,000 kuna (€8,233), and it was a mere 1% of its total funding that year.