Information Commissioner Anita Markić presented the 2023 Report on the Implementation of the Right to Access Information Act in Parliament on Wednesday, emphasizing that there are clear ongoing improvements in the application of the law and expressing hope for continued positive trends in the future.
Presenting various statistics, Markić informed MPs that out of the total 5,823 public authorities required to submit reports, over 90 percent did so in 2023, marking a slight increase from the previous year.
Among the positive developments in 2023, she highlighted the nearly halved number of orders issued by the Commissioner to resolve access to information requests, the decreasing number of administrative disputes, a record number of public consultations, and improvements in proactive publication of information.
In the reporting year, public authorities received 23,700 information access requests, of which 85 percent were resolved within the legal deadline—slightly down from 93 percent the year before.
Markić warned of two extremes:
“Most authorities received up to five requests per year, while two institutions alone—Seget Municipality and Hrvatske vode—received nearly 4,000 requests, mostly from a small number of individuals,” she explained.
In 2023, the Commissioner received 1,179 complaints, a 24 percent decrease compared to the previous year. The majority concerned requests sent to local units and judicial bodies due to administrative silence, she noted.
Mirela Ahmetović (SDP Club) criticized the fact that a quarter of laws in Parliament are passed under urgent procedures, which, she argued, excludes the public from participating in legislative processes. She also expressed dissatisfaction that the Government often fails to respond to MPs’ questions.
Markić responded that urgent procedure does not necessarily exclude public consultation and that decisions about the legislative procedure are outside the Commissioner’s mandate.
Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković added that Parliament determines legislative procedures, stating,
“It’s not true that we’re adopting laws under urgent procedure more than before—in fact, there have been fewer such cases in this term than in previous ones.”
MPs Marijana Puljak (Centar and Northern Independent Platform Club) and Marija Selak Raspudić (Independent MPs Club) also argued that too many laws are passed via urgent procedures.
Puljak also criticized institutions for ignoring the Commissioner’s rulings, citing the example of the City of Split seeking information from the State Inspectorate about pollution in the North Port.
Selak Raspudić called the Commissioner’s report “well-prepared, accurate, and informative,” but stressed the need to examine the extent to which public authority data in Croatia is classified as confidential.
“The Commissioner can push state bodies to improve in this regard,” she said, adding that Croatia still lacks a strong democratic practice for the right to access information.
“We live in a country where it’s hard to access information, and when you do, you can’t be sure whether it’s actually disinformation,” said Ante Kujundžić (Most and Independent MP Jurčević Club). “It’s tragic that 4 percent of authorities still haven’t appointed an information officer, and even more tragic that 10 percent have no website at all,” he added.
Urša Raukar Gamulin (Možemo! Club) questioned why the 2023 report is only now being debated and urged the Speaker to ensure more timely scheduling of such reports. She also criticized the large number of public consultations with shortened deadlines and the many unanswered public comments.
“There is no significant progress in implementing the law, aside from a few formal statistical indicators,” she assessed.
Dalija Orešković (HSS, GLAS, DOSIP Club) added,
“If the report is based only on statistics and doesn’t go into what kinds of public information citizens should have access to, then it misses both its mission and purpose.”
Loris Peršurić (IDS, PGS, UNIJA KVARNERA, ISU-PIP Club), speaking as a mayor, said many cities have already introduced high levels of transparency and regularly publish public information. He emphasized the need for greater education—both for information officers and citizens—on what information can be requested and how to obtain it.