In accordance with its Declaration on the Fundamental Principles of Negotiations on Full Membership of the Republic of Croatia in the European Union and the Statement of the Croatian Parliament and the Government of the Republic of Croatia on Joint Actions in the Process of Negotiation on Membership of the European Union, the Croatian Parliament established at its session of 19 January 2005, the National Committee as a special working body tasked to monitor the negotiations on the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union
The establishment of the National Committee resulted from the consensus of all parliamentary political parties that membership of Croatia in the European Union was a strategic national objective requiring joint co-operative action of the legislative and executive branch to be ensured within a transparent process of conducting future EU accession negotiations. One of the key elements of such process is the appropriate system of Parliamentary monitoring of the accession negotiations which would be achieved through the National Committee.
The competences of the National Committee are to: supervise and evaluate the course of negotiations; give opinions and guidelines on behalf of the Croatian Parliament on the prepared negotiation positions; consider information on the process of negotiations; consider and give its views on issues which would arise in the course of the negotiations; analyse and assess the performance of individual members of the negotiating team; via the Chairperson of the Committee hold regular consultations and exchange information with the President of the Republic of Croatia, the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament; hold regular consultations with the Head of the Delegation and the Chief Negotiator on the progress of negotiations, open issues arising during negotiations and possible ways of closing individual chapters; give opinions, as required, on the harmonisation of Croatian legislation with EU regulations; report on the work of the Committee to the Croatian Parliament at least twice a year.
The Committee is composed of 19 members – 15 Parliamentary deputies and/or representatives of parliamentary parties and 4 other members representing the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia, trade unions, employers’ associations and the academic community.