The partner country in the project was Lithuania, and the EU financed the project with EUR 230,000.
During the six-month project, experts from Kaunas recommended to their Croatian colleagues how to improve the free legal aid system and make the legal system available to more citizens, especially those with lower income.
Deputy Justice Minister Sandra Artukovic Kunst said Croatia now had to enforce the project, "not only in order to do what is asked of us, but to achieve the standards of a civilised, law-based state."
Paolo Berizzi of the EU Delegation said the free legal aid system was part of the benchmarks in "Judiciary and Fundamental Rights", one of the three acquis chapters Brussels is monitoring until Croatia's accession to the EU on July 1, 2013.
The recommendations Croatia is receiving should be understood as recommendations from Union members to another member, which Croatia practically is already, he said, adding that Zagreb had made huge progress in the judiciary over the past five years.
The money for the project came from the EU's IPA pre-accession programme and the main beneficiary is the Justice Ministry, which is working on the improvement of the free legal aid system together with county administration offices, NGOs, unions and attorneys.
Free legal aid is available in civil and administrative proceedings to citizens whose income per household member does not exceed HRK 2,679.95 (357 euros) a month and who have no property other than the house or flat they live in.
Apart from citizens of Croatia, asylum seekers, foreign children who are in Croatia without a parent, and foreigners temporarily or permanently in Croatia are also entitled to free legal aid.