Croatia: Opinion on the Proposed Changes to the Legal Framework Governing Campaign and Political Finance

On 11 March 2025, the State Electoral Commission (SEC) of the Republic of Croatia requested the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to assess a set of proposed amendments it had identified for consideration to Parliament regarding the reform of the legal framework governing campaign and political finance. On 1 September 2025, ODIHR responded to this request, confirming the Office’s readiness to prepare a legal opinion on the submitted proposed amendments to assess their compliance with international human rights standards and OSCE human dimension commitments. Subsequently, ODIHR conducted a consultative visit to Zagreb on 26 September to hold consultations with the SEC on the proposed topics of the review.

The Opinion was prepared in response to the above request. ODIHR conducted this assessment within its mandate to assist the OSCE participating States in the implementation of their OSCE human dimension commitments.2 ODIHR stands ready to provide more in-depth assessment of the electoral-legislative framework impacting the future elections.