Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development is making "extraordinary efforts" to avoid legal proceedings that Croatia faces if it does not respond within two months of receiving a reasoned opinion from the European Commission over its failure to adapt to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

Croatia received the reasoned opinion on 7 February together with Denmark, Greece and Malta and now has two months to respond and take the necessary measures. Otherwise, the Commission may refer the case to the Court of Justice of the EU.

Under the Directive, Member States were required to review and update their programmes of measures by 31 March 2022. The Directive is a comprehensive policy to protect the marine environment of European seas while enabling the sustainable use of marine goods and services.

Ministry is investing effort to avoid legal proceedings

It requires Member States to assess the status of the quality of the marine environment, determine good environmental status, set appropriate environmental objectives and develop appropriate monitoring programmes and implement measures to achieve the main objective of the Directive, which relates to the achievement of “good environmental status” of all marine waters.

The Ministry has informed Hina that it is making “extraordinary efforts” to inform the Commission of compliance with the Directive in a timely manner.

In cooperation with other relevant agencies, the ministry is working to finalise all the required procedures so that the government can adopt the document as soon as possible, as this is an important prerequisite for the completion of this process.

The Ministry justifies the delay by citing the broad themes of the document and the obligations under the Directive, which must be taken into account when defining and adapting the measures. It also refers to the integral nature of the 2022-27 programme of measures and the complexity of the environmental impact assessment.

Drafting the strategy’s documents is more complex

The Ministry says that the obligations under the framework directive were transposed with the Environmental Protection Act and a decree implementing the Marine Environment and Coastal Zone Management Strategy.

Via the decree, Croatia transposed the obligation to establish a national strategy for the integrated management of the coastal zone from the Barcelona Convention Integrated Coastal Zone Management Protocol, the ministry said. It adds that Croatia considers the marine environment and the coastal zone as an indivisible whole.

Since there are no directives at regional and EU level, the preparation of strategy documents is more complex and technically demanding than the preparation of separate strategic documents for the protection of Croatian marine and coastal areas, the ministry said.