The Council for Oversight of the Security and Intelligence Agencies was established pursuant to the Republic of Croatia Security Services Act of 28 March 2002 with the basic aim of providing civilian oversight of the work of security services. The Decision on the Council for Oversight of Security Services of 7 May 2003 regulated those issues essential to the Council’s work not otherwise regulated by the aforementioned Act. Under the Republic of Croatia Security and Intelligence System Act (hereinafter: Act) of 17 may 2006, the Council’s name was changed to the Council for Civilian Oversight of Security and Intelligence Agencies (hereinafter: Council).

The Council consists of a chairperson and six members, all of whom are appointed by the Croatian Parliament. All Council members have to be Croatian citizens with university degrees (according to the Census of 2001, the total number of university graduates is 267,885), while at least one member must have a degree in law, one in political science and one in electrical engineering. Neither the chairperson nor members of the Council may be members of the top leadership of any political party.

The Council’s chairperson and members are appointed for a term of four years, after which they may be re-appointed.

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