Croatia today underwent the first stage of the screening process, an in-depth analysis of the level of adjustment of its legislation to that of the EU, for the chapter on freedom of capital flow.
This chapter, which is the sixth one to be submitted for the screening process, is considered moderately difficult but crucial for the EU. It is divided in three parts - freedom of capital flows, payment systems and prevention of money laundering.
Croatia's legislation is mostly adjusted to European directives, but Croatia must invest more effort in implementing those laws, Vujcic said. This can be achieved only through better cooperation among ministries and state bodies and agencies such as the Interior Ministry, the State Prosecutor's Office, the Office for the Prevention of Money Laundering, the Croatian National Bank, and the Commission for Securities.
As for capital transactions, Croatian laws have mostly been liberalised but the country will have to remove restrictions which prevent transactions whereby foreign nationals acquire real estate in Croatia and some other regulations preventing short-term cash drain, Vujcic said.
According to him, at this stage of the screening process emphasis was put on the prevention of money laundering.
Croatia already has a law under which sums exceeding 105,000 kuna require additional identification in banks and sums exceeding 210,000 kuna must be reported to the Office for the Prevention of Money Laundering. The existing Croatian laws ban the opening of secret bank accounts.
Croatia's legislation on payment systems is mostly not adjusted to the EU legislation and the country is expected to invest significant efforts in that segment.
The second bilateral phase of screening is scheduled to start on 21 December.