The law enactment procedure commences with the submission of a bill to the Speaker of Parliament. The Speaker forwards such bill to the chairpersons of all working bodies, the MPs and the Prime Minister, when the government is not the sponsor. Every MP, political group and working body of the Croatian Parliament and the Croatian Government have the right to sponsor laws.
Prior to the debate on a bill at the Parliament session, the chairperson of the competent working body and the Legislation Committee are obligated to place the bill on the agenda of the session of the working body and conduct a debate thereon. The working bodies adopt a position on all elements of the bill, while the Legislation Committee must particularly adopt a position on the constitutional grounds of the law.
A bill is debated in two readings. The first reading is the first stage in the law making procedure which is conducted at the Parliament session and it includes: an introductory presentation of the sponsor, general debate on the bill, debate on the details of the bill, including the debate on the wording of the bill, the debate on the positions of the working bodies which have considered the bill, and the adoption of a conclusion on the need to pass the bill into law.
The final draft of a bill shall be submitted by the sponsor within a period of six months after the bill has been adopted. If the sponsor fails to do so, it shall be deemed that the legislative procedure is suspended. The debate on the final draft of a bill is called the second reading of the law and it includes: a debate on the text of the final draft of the bill, debate on the positions of the working bodies, debate on the submitted amendments, adopting a decision on the amendments and passing of the law.
The third reading of a bill shall be conducted in cases where the text of the final draft is subject to a larger number of amendments or when the amendments are such that they significantly change the content of the final draft.
By way of derogation, laws may be enacted under urgent procedure when this is required on particularly justified grounds, in particular pertaining to issues of defence and other important justified state issues, or when this is required to prevent or remedy major disturbances in the economy.
The procedure of adopting acts differs depending on the nature of the act. Therefore, different procedures are applied when organic laws or the state budget are adopted. But no matter what procedure of adopting is applied, the legislative procedure always ends with the publication of the law in the official gazette of the Republic of Croatia.
For the adoption of decisions, declarations, resolutions, recommendations and other acts of the Croatian Parliament, the provisions of the Standing Orders pertaining to the procedure of debate on the final draft of a bill apply, whereby the debate on such acts is unique.
a. Initiation of the procedure
The Croatian Parliament, exercising the rights and authorities established by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and the Standing Orders of Parliament, enacts the Constitution, constitutional laws, codes, laws, the state budget, decisions, declarations, resolutions, charters, recommendations and conclusions, and issues authoritative interpretations of individual provisions of laws.
The law enactment procedure commences with the submission of a bill to the Speaker of Parliament. All Members of Parliament, political groups, parliamentary working bodies and the Government are entitled to sponsor bills, unless the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, the Standing Orders or the law stipulate that individual proposals may only be submitted by specific bodies or a specific number of Members of Parliament. The Speaker forwards the received bill to the chairpersons of all working bodies, to all MPs and to the Prime Minister when the Government is not the sponsor.
The Parliament may, by a special conclusion, determine that preliminary discussions be held in the working bodies on the reason for the enactment of a law and the basic issues to be regulated by such a law, based on a review of the status in the individual fields and arguments put forward on possible normative solutions, accompanied by relevant explanations. Preliminary discussions may also be conducted at the session of Parliament. After conducting preliminary discussions, all positions, opinions and proposals are submitted to the sponsor, who is obliged, when drafting the bill, to take them into consideration and in particular provide an explanation for rejecting specific positions, opinions and proposals.
The sponsor is obliged to inform the Speaker of Parliament about the person(s) who will provide notifications and explanations or necessary explications in relation to the submitted bill in parliamentary working bodies and in Parliament.
The sponsor may additionally submit the corresponding documentation to accompany the bill, particularly expert opinions, ratified international treaties, a report on consultations with the public and other acts used to explain the grounds for the bill.
The text of a bill contains solutions in the form of legal provisions. Individual solutions may be proposed alternatively, with the necessary explanation of each of the proposed alternatives. The explanations of bills shall contain the explanation of individual provisions contained in the bill.
When a bill specifies that individual provisions thereof are to be applied retroactively, the sponsor is obliged to explain in particular the reasons justifying such provisions.
b. Bill
Bills contain:
- the constitutional grounds for the enactment of the law;
- an assessment of the status and fundamental issues to be regulated by the law and the impact of the enacted law;
- an assessment and sources of necessary funds to implement the law;
- the text of the bill, with its interpretation and explanation;
- the text of the provisions of the existing law.
The sponsor may additionally submit the corresponding documentation to accompany the bill, particularly expert opinions, ratified international treaties, a report on consultations with the public and other acts used to explain the grounds for the bill.
In the upper right-hand corner of the title page, bills bear the designation “P.Z. br ___” (abbreviations of the Croatian terms Prijedlog zakona – Bill, and broj – number) while legislation being aligned with the regulations of the European Union bear the designation “P.Z.E. br ___”. Each bill is given the next ordinal number at the end of the designation referred to in Article 177 paragraph 1 of the Standing Orders, and this designation must be cited in all other written materials (reports, opinions, amendments, final drafts, etc.) that pertain to a bill, until its enactment.
c. Consideration of a bill in working bodies
Prior to the debate on a bill at a session of Parliament, the chairperson of the competent working body and the Legislation Committee are obliged to place the bill on the agenda of the session of the working body and conduct a debate thereon. The working bodies adopt a position on all elements of the bill, while the Legislation Committee must particularly adopt a position on the constitutional grounds of the law.
Upon considering a bill, the competent working body submits its report to the Parliament containing the opinions, positions, comments and proposals sponsored during its consideration.
The competent working body may consider the opinions, positions, comments and proposals submitted to it by other working bodies that considered the bill, and may request other working bodies to deliver such reports. In the report it submits to the Parliament, the competent working body shall additionally communicate its position on the opinions, positions, comments and proposals of other working bodies if they have been received prior to concluding the debate on the bill.
The Speaker of Parliament submits the reports received from the working bodies to the sponsor of the bill and Members of Parliament.
Upon considering a bill, the working body designates a rapporteur who presents the opinions, positions and comments and explains the proposals of this body at the session of Parliament.
d. First reading
The first reading is the first stage in the law making procedure which is conducted at the Parliament session and it includes:
• an introductory presentation by the sponsor,
• general debate on the bill,
• debate on the details of the bill, including the debate on the wording of the bill,
• debate on the positions of the working bodies which have considered the bill,
• adoption of a conclusion on the need to pass the bill into law.
In addition to the introductory speech, the sponsor of the bill or the representatives designated by the sponsor are entitled to provide explanations, express opinions and adopt a position on the opinions, positions, comments and proposals made throughout the course of the debate in line with the provisions of the Standing Orders. A representative of the Government may request the floor during the course of the debate in Parliament even when the Government is not the sponsor of the bill. The sponsor of the bill may withdraw a bill until the conclusion of the debate.
At the session of Parliament, there is a general debate and a debate on details which, as a rule, are unified. A general debate on a bill is conducted in such a manner that Members of Parliament express their opinions on whether it is necessary to enact the law, on fundamental matters that are to be regulated by the law, on the constitutional authority that the proposed matter be regulated by law, and on the scope and manner of legally regulating such matters. A debate on details includes a discussion on the text of a bill and its individual provisions.
If Members of Parliament assess that the need to enact the law does not exist, the bill will be rejected by a conclusion that must be explained and submitted to the sponsor. The bill rejected at a session may not be placed on the agenda again before three months have passed after the date of its rejection by Parliament.
Upon closing the debate by a conclusion to accept the bill, the Parliament submits its opinions, positions, comments and proposals to the sponsor for the purpose of drafting the final draft.
e. Form of the final draft
The final draft is submitted in the form in which the law is to be enacted.
The explanation of the final draft encompasses the grounds for the enactment of the law, matters resolved thereby, explanations of the individual provisions, information on funds necessary to implement the law and methods to secure such funds and other circumstances pertinent to the matters to be regulated by the law.
In the explanation of the final draft, the sponsor is obliged to indicate the differences between the solutions being proposed and the solutions contained in the bill, the reasons why these differences emerged and the proposals, objections and opinions that were expressed regarding the bill and that were not accepted by the sponsor, with a statement of reasons why they were not accepted.
Application of the provisions of the Standing Orders
When the final draft of a bill is being debated, the provisions on the debate at the second reading stage are applied accordingly to the provisions on the debate at the first reading stage.
During the debate on the text of the final draft of a bill, the final draft is debated by sections or articles, as well as the tabled amendments. After the debate, decisions are adopted on the submitted amendments. The sponsor of the bill states whether he/she accepts or opposes each tabled amendment and only the sponsor of the amendment may respond to such a statement of the sponsor of the bill, in a speech that does not exceed two minutes. After conducting the debate and deciding on amendments, the debate is concluded and the enactment of the law is decided upon.
f. Second reading
The second reading of a bill is the second stage in the procedure to enact a law that is conducted at sessions of Parliament and it includes:
• an introductory presentation by the sponsor,
• general debate on the bill,
• debate on the text of the final draft of the bill
• debate on the positions of the working bodies,
• debate on tabled amendments,
• deciding on amendments
• enactment of the law.
After the introductory presentation, the sponsor of the bill is entitled to request the floor throughout the course of the debate, provide explanations, express opinions and express positions on the tabled amendments as well as on the comments and proposals made throughout the course of the debate. A representative of the Government may also request the floor during the course of the debate even when the Government is not the sponsor of the bill.
During the debate on the text of the final draft of a bill, the final draft is debated by sections and chapters, that is paragraphs and articles as well as the tabled amendments and after the debate, decisions are adopted on the submitted amendments. The sponsor of the bill states whether he/she accepts or opposes each tabled amendment while only the sponsor of the amendment may respond to such a statement. After conducting the debate and deciding on amendments, the debate is concluded and the enactment of the law is decided upon.
g. Third reading
The third reading of a bill is a special stage in the procedure to enact a law conducted according to the decision of Parliament or at the request of the sponsor in cases where the text of the final draft is subject to a larger number of amendments or when the amendments are such that they significantly alter the content of the final draft.
The third reading is conducted under the conditions and according to the procedure stipulated in Standing Orders of Parliament for the second reading.
h. Enactment of laws under urgent procedure
By way of derogation, laws may be enacted under urgent procedure when this is required on particularly justified grounds, which are specifically explained in the request.
The request to enact the law under urgent procedure is submitted together with the final draft of the bill, which contains all that is contained in the bill, with the exception that instead of the text of the bill, the text of the final draft of the bill is attached. When the request to enact a law under urgent procedure is submitted by a Member of Parliament, he/she must have the written support of an additional 15 Members of Parliament. The request to enact a law under urgent procedure may be submitted by a political group that has 15 or more members and by political groups that together have 15 or more members.
The request to enact a law under urgent procedure is submitted to the Speaker of Parliament at least 24 hours prior to the confirmation of the agenda at the session and it is decided upon by voting during the confirmation of the agenda at the beginning of the session, or during the adoption of addenda to the agenda. If the request to enact a law under urgent procedure is not accepted, the Speaker of Parliament may move to conduct the first reading at the same session.
Legislation being aligned with the documents of the European Union is enacted under urgent procedure if so sought by the sponsor, except in the case when the competent working body, the Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders and Political System or the Legislation Committee propose that the legislation be debated at the first reading stage due to its non-compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia or the legal system.
Organic laws govern the rights of national minorities and elaborate human rights and fundamental freedoms set forth in the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, the electoral system, structure, authority and operating procedures of state bodies and the structure and authority of local and regional self-government.
Equality and protection of the rights of national minorities are regulated by the constitutional law adopted in the procedure for the adoption of organic laws. The provisions of the Standing Orders pertaining to the legislation procedure apply to the procedures for enacting organic laws and the constitutional law regulating equality and protection of the rights of national minorities. Organic laws regulating the rights of national minorities are adopted by the Croatian Parliament by a two-thirds majority vote of all Members of Parliament. Other organic laws are adopted by the Croatian Parliament with the majority vote of all Members of Parliament.
The proposal to amend the final draft of a bill is submitted in writing in the form of an amendment accompanied by an explanatory statement. All Members of Parliament, political groups and working bodies of Parliament and the Government are entitled to table amendments. Amendments are tabled with the Speaker of Parliament by the end of the debate on the final draft of the bill held at the session of Parliament.
The Speaker of Parliament refers the tabled amendments to Members of Parliament, the sponsor of the bill and the Government when it is not the sponsor. The tabled amendments are also referred to the competent working body and the Legislation Committee so that they can submit their reports with opinions and proposals thereon.
If the purpose of the final draft of a bill is to amend an existing law, then amendments may refer only to articles covered by the initially proposed amendments. By way of derogation, amendments may be tabled to the articles of a law not covered by the initially proposed amendments if this is necessary for their alignment with the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia or documents pertaining to international integration or pertaining to rulings of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia.
Voting on amendments is conducted according to the order of the articles of the final draft of the bill to which they pertain. If multiple amendments to the same article of the final draft of the bill are tabled, voting on the amendments is conducted according to the order determined by the chair, without debate. If multiple amendments tabled to the same article of the final draft of the bill are identical in content, then voting is conducted only on the first one.
If multiple mutually exclusive amendments to the same article are adopted, the last accepted amendment in the order of voting is adopted.
The sponsor and the Government, regardless of whether or not it is the sponsor, adopt a position on the amendments. The position is generally communicated orally. After the sponsor states his/her position on a given amendment, only the sponsor of the amendment may respond to such a position, and the duration of this speech may not exceed two minutes. Amendments tabled or accepted by the sponsor of the bill become an integral part of the final draft of the bill and voting thereon is not conducted separately.
If the representative of the Government is not present at the debate, Parliament or its working body may – if it deems that the presence of a Government representative is necessary – discontinue or postpone the debate. The Parliament or the working body shall so decide without debate.
Authorized sponsors of legislation may submit to the Speaker of Parliament motions to provide authoritative interpretations of laws. Such a motion shall contain the title of the law, the designation of the provision requiring interpretation, the grounds for seeking interpretation, sources of the necessary funds and a draft text of the authoritative interpretation of the law. The Speaker of Parliament refers motions to provide authoritative interpretation of laws to the Legislation Committee, the competent working body and the Government (if the Government is not the mover) for them to assess the merit of the motion. The competent working body and the Government are obliged to submit their opinion to the Legislation Committee within a period of 30 days. If the competent working body and the Government do not submit their opinions within the stipulated period, it shall be deemed that they concur with the motion to provide an authoritative interpretation of the law.
Upon obtaining the opinions of the competent working body and the Government, or after the expiry of the period referred to in Article 209 paragraph 3 of the Standing Orders, the Legislation Committee assesses whether a validly submitted motion to provide authoritative interpretation of a law has grounds and reports its position to Parliament within a period of 30 days.
If it assesses that the motion has grounds, the Legislation Committee submits to Parliament the draft text of the authoritative interpretation and its report.
If the Legislation Committee assesses that the motion to provide authoritative interpretation has no grounds, it shall inform Parliament thereof and Parliament shall make a decision thereon. Parliament shall debate on a motion to provide authoritative interpretations in one reading.
The Government submits to the Speaker of Parliament a draft Central Budget accompanied by an explanation. At the same time, draft financial plans for extra-budgetary funds with explanations and the final draft of the Central Budget Execution Bill are submitted.
The provisions of the Standing Orders pertaining to the procedures to enact laws shall be applied accordingly to the passage of the Central Budget. Joint debate in general, by sections and by amendments shall be held on the Central Budget in one reading. Voting on tabled amendments and the budget as a whole may not be conducted prior to the expiry of three days after the date of the debate.
The Government submits a report on budget execution to the Speaker of Parliament within the period stipulated by law. During the debate on the execution of the Central Budget, and based on the implemented work programmes, the basis for the next period’s policy or guidelines for budget drafting may be established, as well as the conditions and criteria to finance the tasks of state bodies and organisations and to finance other state needs.
Croatian Parliament is a representative body of the people vested with legislative power in the Republic of Croatia. Pursuant to the rights and authorisations established by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and the Standing Orders, Parliament decides on the enactment of and amendments to the Constitution, enacts laws, the Central Budget, decisions, declarations, resolutions, charters, recommendations and conclusions, and issues authoritative interpretations of individual provisions of laws.
This section provides a broad outline of the manner in which these acts of Parliament are adopted while the exact procedure is laid down by the Constitution and the Standing Orders of Parliament.
Parliament may, by a decision, charter, certificate of gratitude or other official act, confer recognition to Croatian or foreign citizens or organisations for their work which is of exceptional importance to the Republic of Croatia. The proposal for recognition is submitted by the Speaker of Parliament.
Decisions, standing orders and rules are passed to regulate the internal structure, operating procedures and relations in Parliament. A decision, which signifies the exercise of Parliament’s rights, determines elections or appointments, dismissals or recalls, appointments to specific bodies, ratifications of acts of other bodies and legal entities vested with public authority.
A declaration expresses the general position of Parliament on domestic or foreign policy matters and on other matters vital to the Republic of Croatia.
By means of a resolution, Parliament identifies the state of play and problems in a specific area as well as measures that should be implemented.
Recommendations refer to submitted petitions and appeals about irregularities in the work of legal entities vested with public authority and contain proposals for their solution.
By way of conclusions, Parliament establishes its position on specific events and circumstances. Based on the assessment of certain individual situations, conclusions may be used to communicate a position, express an opinion or ascertain the duties of the Government, Ministries and other state administration bodies.
With reference to the procedures to pass decisions, declarations, resolutions, recommendations and other acts of Parliament, the provisions of the Standing Orders on the procedure for the debate on the final draft of a bill are applied unless Parliament decides otherwise. The debate on these acts of Parliament is unified, unless it is decided to first deliberate on the proposal in general and then in detail.
The procedures to pass other acts of Parliament, regardless of whether they are passed under the procedures for bills or final drafts of bills, are always sponsored by a draft act.
The sponsor of an act of Parliament referred to in paragraph 1 hereof shall be obliged to submit the draft act to the Speaker of Parliament, and this draft by its nature must be accompanied by an explanatory statement.
Reports, acts and other information not submitted to Parliament by the Government shall be referred to the Government by the Speaker of Parliament for its opinion.
As a rule, voting at sessions is public and conducted by raising hands, a roll call or electronically.
Laws, decisions, resolutions, conclusions and other acts of Parliament are passed by a majority vote, provided that a majority of Members of Parliament are present at the session, unless specified otherwise in the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and the Standing Orders of Parliament.
It requires a majority vote of all Members of Parliament for the Parliament to pass:
• decisions to sponsor the amendment of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and the establishment of draft amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia;
• laws (organic laws) that elaborate constitutionally established human rights and fundamental freedoms, the electoral system, the structure, authority and operating procedures of state bodies and the structure and authority of local and regional self-government;
• National Security Strategy and Strategy of the Defence of the Republic of Croatia;
• votes of confidence in the Prime Minister and members of the Government or votes of no confidence in the Prime Minister, the Government as a whole or individual members of the Government;
• decisions to dissolve Parliament;
• the Standing Orders of Parliament;
• the Central Budget.
It requires a two-thirds majority vote of all Members of Parliament, for the Parliament to:
• enact the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia and amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia;
• ratify international treaties whereby an international organisation or alliance is granted authority vested by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia;
• enact the Constitutional Act on the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia;
• pass the decision under Article 7 paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia given the conditions under Article 7 paragraph 7 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia;
• enact constitutional laws (organic laws) governing the rights of national minorities and other constitutional laws;
• pass decisions to institute proceedings for the impeachment of the President of the Republic;
• pass preliminary decisions on the association of the Republic of Croatia into alliances with other states, as well as its dissociation;
• pass the decision under Article 8 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia;
• pass the decision under Article 126 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia;
• pass laws as stipulated under Article 17 paragraph 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia.
The Speaker of Parliament signs laws and other regulations enacted by Parliament and refers enacted laws to the President of the Republic for promulgation.
Laws are promulgated by the President of the Republic within eight days from the date of their enactment by the Croatian Parliament. If the President of the Republic holds that a promulgated law does not conform with the Constitution, he/she may institute proceedings to review the constitutionality of such law before the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia.
Before their entry into force, laws and other regulations of state bodies are published in Narodne novine, the official journal of the Republic of Croatia.