Divjak, Topic Bahtijarevic Partner Mario Krka says that “there are currently three major legislative changes that everybody in Croatia is talking about: changes to the Corporate Law Act, certain tax bylaws amendments, and upcoming changes to the Civil Procedure Act.”
“Corporate law changes are what lawyers are talking about most,” Krka says. The most significant of those changes, he says, involve e-incorporation of companies, within a broader strategy designed to “modernize access to courts”, and generally clearing things up from legal perspective.
Tax changes are also an “especially hot topic,” Krka says, referring to changes that will allow Croatia’s Tax Authority to block Internet pages if it “believes that these pages enable people to buy goods and services in a way that circumnavigates the current regulatory framework.” The Tax Authority is to do that by “requesting the blockage from the network regulator, which will, in turn, apply pressure on Internet providers to shut these pages down.”
Recently proposed changes to the Civil Procedure Act, Krka concludes, “will mostly serve to streamline practice and ease the current caseload the Supreme Court has on its plate.” Croatia’s Civil Procedure Act hasn’t been amended in six years, he says, and he notes that the current “set of suggestions will lighten court’s workload, but will also deny citizens certain types of legal remedies.”
Krka says that “the real estate sector is the most active right now” and that there is a significant “increase in the prices of properties both in the commercial and residential sectors, especially on the seaside and in Zagreb.” He adds that there are some talks of a “major infrastructural project that will aim to revamp a portion of Zagreb next to the Sava river,” but reports some that the contractors rumored to be working on the project are “the people that are linked to a similar project in Belgrade – The Belgrade Waterfront - which has a cloud of controversy around it.”
Turning away from real estate, Krka notes that “the purchase of Croatia’s third major telecommunications operator, TELE2, has been announced.” (As reported by CEE Legal Matters on June 7, 2019).
Finally, Krka says that the recent European Parliamentary elections led to a slight “shift towards the right,” which could lead to a “strengthening of right-wing politics.” He concludes by saying that “the important question is the stability of the ruling coalition In Croatia,” and he notes that any internal party turmoil may “have external impact, especially in terms of parties positioning for the Croatian parliamentary elections.”
