The Constitution describes the basic institutions of local government, guaranteeing (in Article 128) the right to decide on the citizens' needs and interests of local importance, particularly physical planning, town-planning, settlement arrangement, housing, communal activities, and on the protection and promotion of the natural environment.
Right to Information. Article 38 of the Constitution only provides that journalists shall have the right to freedom of reporting and access to information. Parliamentarians also have the right to demand information from the government under Article 86. Where citizens are unsuccessful dealing directly with the government, they may have more success if they can convince their representatives to seek the information.
The Right of Association is guaranteed by Article 43 of the Constitution, subject to limitation by the prohibition of any violent threat to the "democratic constitutional order and the independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Republic". Also essential for public participation and included in the Constitution are the right of assembly and freedom of expression.
Right of Petition. Article 46 of the Constitution provides all citizens with the right to submit petitions and complaints, to make proposals to government and other public bodies and to receive answers thereto.
Right to Petition the Constitutional Court. Article 15 of the Constitutional Law on the Constitutional Court provides that every citizen has the right to initiate the "assessment of the constitutionality and legality of laws and other regulations". The Constitutional Court has the power to suspend the enforcement of individual actions undertaken on the basis of the challenged law or regulation if the enforcement of such law or regulation would cause irreparable harm.
Also within the jurisdiction of the Court is "protecting the constitutional freedoms and rights of man and the citizen". This power implies that individuals may bring cases before the court complaining of violations of constitutional rights involving public officials. In Croatia it is not a legal tradition to base legal actions directly on the constitution.
There is no right of initiative on the level of national legislation. On the level of local government, citizens have the right to propose a bill to the municipal or city council to propose the solution of certain questions under its jurisdiction.
The Parliamentary Committee for Physical Planning and Environmental Protection frequently invites representatives of environmental NGOs to discuss draft laws and submit comments. This Committee defines the basic strategy of environmental protection in Croatia. Therefore, lobbying Committee members may be an effective means of exerting public pressure. The Parliament as a whole regularly publishes "Reports of Croatian Parliament", which contains parliamentary discussions on proposed laws.
Public notification of proposed laws is not mandatory. The government usually requests the opinions of experts but the government is under no obligation to respond to expert opinions in any way.
Right of Referendum. Referenda may be called by the President. There is no provision for referendum on petition of voters with respect to national legislation. There is a right of referendum by a petition of the voters at the local level, according to Articles 17 and 19 of the Law on Local Government. Matters referable include proposals to change existing ordinances, proposals for general acts or other matters within the competencies of the municipal or city council, as well as other questions defined by law. Referenda may commence upon the demand of one-fifth of the members of local committees within the area of the municipality or city.
The Law on State Administration declares that state authority bodies are obliged to organize their work and activities in such a way that citizens and legal persons can realize their constitutionally guaranteed rights and legally protected interests and fulfill their citizens' duties in a simple and efficient way.
Citizens also have the right to establish, in conformity with law, other forms of local self-government in localities and parts thereof. Among the matters that local self-governments have rights to decide upon are protection and promotion of the environment, under Article 128 of the Constitution.
Under the Croatian scheme of local self-government, most environmental protection matters are handled on the national level. Municipalities and towns have authority over local environmental protection and town planning, and counties (zupanija) have authority over protection of the environment with respect to the common interests of its constituent municipalities. Article 13 of the Law on Local Management and Self-Management states, in one pertinent part, that municipalities and towns within the frame of self-management domain must ensure conditions for spatial arrangement, urban planning and environmental protection, unless it is otherwise defined by a special law.
Every citizen has the right to propose laws or solutions to particular problems on the local government level. Every citizen has the right to submit submissions and complaints to the local administrative authorities and to receive an answer.
With respect to citizen involvement in local affairs, the Law on Local Management and Self-Management requires local councils to respond to citizen proposals within three months if such proposals have been ratified by 10 percent of the town electors.
The Constitution, Article 19, provides in pertinent part that Judicial review of the legality of individual acts of administrative authorities and bodies vested with public powers is guaranteed.
Article I of the Law on Civil Proceedings states that in order to ensure the court protection of the right of citizens and legal persons and to ensure legality, a court in an administrative cause decides about the legality of acts performed by state organizations vested with public powers and reaches solutions about rights and obligations in administrative matters.
Article 93 of the Constitution creates the Office of Ombudsman, whose duty is to protect the constitutional and legal rights of citizens in proceedings before government administration and bodies vested with public powers.
The Law on Ombudsman, Article 12, gives to the Ombudsman the power, on his own initiative or at the urging of a citizen, to examine individual violations of constitutional and legal rights of citizens, and other irregularities in the exercise of state administrative power. Every citizen has the right to submit petitions to the Ombudsman, without regard to whether the petitioner has himself suffered direct injury. There is no example of petitioning the Ombudsman in an environmental case.
Article 89 of the Law on State Administration declares the obligation of State authorities to make possible citizens and legal persons submission of citizens and complaints.
Citizens with an interest in an ongoing administrative proceeding may seek to be admitted as parties. Historically, admission has generally been granted, but the status of parties and their showing of legal interest is expected to be a matter of increased contention in the future.
The Law on State Administration states, in Article 82 states quite a wide obligation of state authorities to inform citizens and the public.
The new Law on Environmental Protection (1994) contains specific provisions granting to the public the right of access to environmental information of a general nature: reports on the state of environment that are produced once every two years (art. 22); emissions monitoring reports (art. 35 and 40), or information on specific polluters and pollution. There is an obligation to inform the public when the permitted levels of emission standards is exceeded. State authority bodies, bodies of local government and self-government and the authorized person within a body vested with public power are obliged to give information they have to interested organizations and individuals within 30 days from the day the demand has been received (art. 49).
Regarding the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Croatia is in the transition period. The "Law on Physical Planning and Spatial Arrangement" of 1980 has been replaced with the new Law on Spatial Arrangement of 1994 while the "Regulations on Environmental Impact Study" of 1984 has not been changed yet.
Under Article 20 of the EIA law, the competent body shall, "prepare documentation for public review." Generally it has been the duty of the local government and the proposer of the activity to organize the public participation proceedings. Costs are covered by the proposer of the activity. Article 25 of the regulations specifies the requirements for public review at each stage of the study elaboration. In a few cases the public review may be organized only for the final study, provided that this is the decision of the expert commission for the evaluation of the study. The public review must be organized for a minimum period of one month.
The Ministry of Civil Engineering and Environmental Protection, which is charged with implementing EIA procedures, was obliged to respond to public comments. If the comments submitted by the public were not incorporated into the final assessment, the reason for non-inclusion must be given.
The law regulating permitting and licensing of new facilities requires public hearings. The public is also allowed to submit written comments on proposed permits, and, as required by the administrative law, the government must respond to such comments.
Among many documents dealing with spatial arrangement and physical plans, only regional and local physical plans include public participation proceeding such as public review (Article 19 and 23).
The waste law and the laws on air and water have no public participation provisions.
As outlined in the Civil Code (Liability), property owners who can prove that their property was directly damaged by illegal activities can sue for compensation. In Croatia there are numerous obstacles to the use of civil causes of action for damages to health due to pollution. The courts have applied a difficult standard of establishing causation which generally prevents injured parties from prevailing. Viewed another way, it is difficult to meet standing requirements without establishing direct injury.
Chapter 15 of the Penal Code of the Republic of Croatia specifies penalties for crimes against human health. Article 162 states that the pollution of the human environment is a matter of penal action. The law prescribes penalties for the polluter.
Additionally, Chapter 20 of the Penal Code deals with acts against "other social values" and specifically includes a criminal offense of the importing of hazardous substances into the Republic of Croatia.
Most people involved in environmental issues believe that most constitutional rights for public participation have been used in practice except the right to petition the Constitutional Court for review. In fact very few rights have been used: rights of free assembly, rights of association and right of expression.
Clear and substantive procedural rules for participation are more often perceived by government officials than by NGOs. The same perceptions are found in EIA procedure regarding the phase of decision the public can participate .
The most often used legal forms of public participation are right to know and freedom of information, public participation provisions in administrative and environmental laws and constitutional rights.
The two court cases have been registered: one is the Bakar coke facility, the other involves the building company Industrogradnja for environmental damage on the island of Rab.
After several years, the project "Voice of the Children" can be considered as an institutionalized mechanism for cooperation between the Croatian Government and Croatian Green Alliance. The last meeting was used to propose to the Prime Minister a regular forum between NGOs and Croatian Government once. It is hoped that the Prime Minister's promise to participate in the forum will be fulfilled.
Financial support for NGOs is weak. There is no support from government or Parliament, but it comes from local and regional government, private business firms and foreign governments and foundations.
Several cases can be counted as public participation failures such as the refusal of the "Victor Lenac" shipyard to change to cleaner technology. Among the reasons cited for failure are lack of support from local authorities and the media, sudden action of local authorities, manipulation with information and expertise and strong lobby on the opposite side. In fact these were the cases of successful participation but they are considered failures, because "the environmentally acceptable plants were not built". It is really questionable if these plants were acceptable, but this was the failure of government industry establishment and success of public participation. Opposed to this, local government officials evaluate the failures from the side of NGOs and public.
Citizens' activities lack coordination and there is no motivation or interest shown on their part to be more proactive. The lack of both information, and possibility to gain access to it, is the fundamental barrier to improved public involvement. War, poverty and economic crisis further increase these difficulties. Finally, the traditional political culture produces citizens who are not actively involved in the decisionmaking process, and expect authorities to do what is good for them.
Parliament must provide more public access keep the environment in mind when drafting legislation.
Citizens and NGOs must restore closer connections with MoE and indirectly through them and the Parliament must influence the passing laws especially in the "first reading" phase.
Citizens must become more educated on matters of government and ecology, and economic development and get involved in environmental policy.
Citizens should be constantly educated for an active and creative role in building up of the regulations as effective mechanisms of environment protection.
NGOs should assume a larger role in advocating for public participation, should cooperate better and become more organized.
Business must also become more open to the community and accept more responsibility by adopting greener technologies, hiring experts which understand environmental issues, and budgeting financial sources for the realization of environmental protection.
The media must play a more effective role in educating and informing, and provide access to all groups - government, NGOs and the public.
Regional cooperation will also transfer experience, and financial and moral support. Cooperation can support educational programs, can contribute to solutions to common environmental problems, and can lead to the development of case studies in achievements and failures of public participation. Good practices help in informing the Croatian government about foreign practices, in legal and non-formal fields about behavior of government, NGOs and the public. The transfer of information and experience, mutual projects, and assistance in developing new approaches should be the guiding principles of international cooperation.