Harmonization of Legislation

As a member state of the European Union, Croatia is obliged to align its national legislation with the acquis communautaire. The European acquis is constantly evolving and national regulations have to be harmonized accordingly.

Since 1 July 2013, the Croatian Parliament has been adopting legislation harmonized with the acquis following the procedure established in the pre-accession period, according to which all legislative proposals that align Croatian legislation with the acquis bear the designation "P.Z.E." and are adopted under urgent procedure if so sought by the sponsor.

The Parliament adopts the annual legislative alignment plan, which is an integral part of the Government's programme for incorporating and implementing the acquis, and is the basic document in the process of incorporating and implementing EU law in Croatian legislation.

Croatia is obliged to implement the notification procedure i.e. to timely notify the European Commission of the measures for the transposition of new directives into Croatian legislation as well as to properly implement the adopted legislation.

The EU acquis is available in the Croatian language, which is one of the official languages of the Union, in order to provide Croatian citizens with equal access to European legislation.