
Zagreb - The parliamentary Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders and the Political System decided unanimously and without debate on Wednesday to issue a call for the selection of three Constitutional Court judges whose terms expire on 12 October.
The president of the Constitutional Court, Miroslav Šeparović, informed Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković that the terms of three judges will expire at that time, according to Committee chair Ivan Malenica.
The judges concerned are Šeparović, Mato Arlović, and Goran Selanec.
The Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders and the Political System initiates the process for the selection of Constitutional Court judges, and the deadline for submitting proposals is 30 days from the publication of the public call in the Official Gazette.
Given that parliament’s summer recess begins on 15 July, it has been decided that the call will be published in the Official Gazette on 1 September, after which interested candidates will have 30 days to apply.
Once the deadline for submission has passed, the committee will verify the validity of the received applications and hold public interviews with the candidates who meet the criteria set out in the call.
Following this, negotiations between the ruling majority and the opposition will begin concerning the selection of the three Constitutional Court judges.
Judges of the Constitutional Court are elected by a two-thirds majority of all MPs (101 votes), from among distinguished legal experts, particularly judges, state attorneys, lawyers, and university professors of legal sciences.
If no agreement is reached on the three judges by mid-October, their terms may be extended until April 2026.
Last December, parliament confirmed ten agreed Constitutional Court judges out of 13 by a two-thirds majority: Ante Galić, Andrej Abramović, Miroslav Šumanović, Lovorka Kušan, Rajko Mlinarić, Biljana Kostadinov, Dražen Bošnjaković, Sanja Bezbradica Jelavić, Frano Staničić, and Maša Marochini Zrinski.