Zagreb - The government on Thursday sent to the parliament the draft bill on enforcement aimed at ensuring cost-saving and efficient procedures for enforcement as well as at a well-balanced protection of dignity of debtors, and the new legislation reinstates the jurisdiction of courts over enforcement procedures.
Presenting the bill, Justice Minister Dražen Bošnjaković said.enforcement proceedings would be thus aligned with the EU acquis.
The centralised implementation of enforcement over pecuniary resources would be introduced, with the FINA agency being in charge of that process, under court supervision.
Bailiffs would be supposed to fill in necessary forms and forward to courts and debtors will be asked either to solve their overdue liabilities or contest the claims in 15 days upon the receipt of the notice. In the event that the debtor challenges the enforcement proceedings, a lawsuit will ensue.
Some of the measures to protect the dignity of debtors will be the suspension of a debtor's eviction form their property during winter that is from 1 November to 1 April.
The costs for the procedure will be also reduced.
Furthermore a list of pecuniary items that cannot be enforced will expand to include Christmas bonuses, holiday bonuses and other bonuses which the debtor can receives due their work.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said today that the the new law sent a clear message that his cabinet approached the problems of the citizens with blocked accounts in a comprehensive manner and that the government would like to help those most needy.
He noted that the government took note of the fact that 87% of enforcement cases referred to debtors with small debts.
He recalled that his cabinet had already adopted laws on the write-off of debts to individual citizens and consumers' bankruptcy and enforcement of pecuniary claims.
The results are palpable, the number of 325,000 citizens with blocked accounts has fallen to 259,000, he added.