Croatia

Standards

National standards organizations

Integration in the international standards network

The State Office for Standardisation and Metrology (DZNM) is the body which defines the laws of standardisation and ratification in Croatia. The purpose is to harmonise these standards with the European standards.
The European standards are appreciated.

Classification of standards

Accreditation is done according to the international (ISO) and European (EN) standards that are recognized as Croatian (HRN) ones.

Online consultation of standards

Certification organizations

Legal framework

Independence of justice

The judicial system suffers from numerous problems, most notably inefficiency. Judicial personnel shortages have led to a huge backlog of cases, though it decreased in the last years. Excessive trial length and a lack of enforcement of judicial decisions, especially in cases related to the repossession of property owned by Serbs, plague the system. Despite some improvements, a lack of impartiality among the local courts remains a problem.

Equal treatment of nationals and foreigners

Yes, the law prohibits discrimination based on gender, age, race, disability, language, or social status. However, some cases of discrimination against women, ethnic Serbs, and Roma are still reported.

The language of justice

Official language also in justice is Croatian. The exception are officially recognized ethnical minorities: Serbs, Bosnians, Italians, Hungarians, Albanians, Slovenes and Roumanians. They have right to use their language in the local courts where their minority rights are officially recognized.

Sources of the law and legal similarities

Croatia is a Republic state based on parliamentary democracy. Croatia (official name: Republic of Croatia) is a former Yugoslav republic and achieved independence in 1991. It is a candidate for membership in the European Union.
President is the chief of the state, elected by popular vote for a five-year term. President can dissolve the Parliament and call for elections. President is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The President appoints the Prime Minister and the Cabinet with the consent of Parliament. Prime Minister holds the executive powers.
The legislature is unicameral. The Parliament is a legislative body whose members are elected from party lists by popular vote to serve four-year terms. The constitution has been changed to shift power away from the President to the Parliament. People of Croatia have considerable political rights.
Broadly speaking, the judicial system in Croatia is not independent. It suffers from shortage of judges leading to backlog of cases and also lacks in enforcement of judicial decisions. The main source of the law is the constitution of 1990 (revised in 2001) which is based on civil law system. Croatian is the judicial language used in the country.
On the whole, Croatia is ruled by law. Law and order situation in the country has considerably improved since the year 2000. One cannot guarantee a fair trial to a foreign national, but the government of Croatia has now become more willing to honour international obligations. A high degree of corruption exists in the country in all walks of life (government, corporate & judiciary).

Consulting national laws online

Official Gazette of Croatia publishing all legislation (in Croatian only).
A database containing court practice, ministry decisions and opinions, index of author's papers, introductions of books, lectures and seminars published in legal publications: all read and categorized by experts using keywords and notes about the type of law, same and opposite opinions as well as doubtful decisions.

Intellectual Property

National organizations

The body responsible for industrial property is the State Office for Intellectual Property.
Croatia signed the Agreement of Paris concerning the protection of industrial property and the agreement which establishes the World Intellectual property Organization (WIPO). They are a part of the Agreement of Madrid, on the international register of the trademarks.

Tax rates

Accounting rules

Tax year

The fiscal year begins on January 1-st and ends on December 31 of the same year.

Accounting regulation bodies

Accounting reports

The registration of the accounts operations must be made during the financial year which often corresponds to the calendar year. The account book and the ledger must be kept up to date and then kept during at least 11 years.
The accounts structure of companies in Croatia refers to the model of the International Accounting Standards Committee.

Publication

The Croatian entrepreneurs are subjected to the obligation of information about their financial situation. The documents of financial information must be drafted in Croatian and expressed in the national currency: the Croatian kunas.
These documents must contain: a balance sheet, a profit and loss account, a review of the changes of the authorized capital, comments and annexes.

Professional accountancy bodies

Certification and auditing

The financial documents of firms with more than 30 million croatian kunas annual sales should be checked by an independent external auditor who will have the responsibility to guarantee the sincerity and the accuracy of the given information.

Accounting news

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