The project aimed at improving the efficiency of municipal courts in Croatia by separating judicial and management powers was carried out by the British company Agencia Consulting and paid by the Foreign Office fund for future European Union countries.
The successful completion of the three-year project is an important step for Croatia, Agencia Consulting representative Steve Jacobs said presenting the final project report.
The project team closely cooperated with all stakeholders to reach the point at which the outcome of the job can be incorporated in the law on courts and carried out, he said, adding that the need for this new position had been approved and supported in general and that implementation would quickly prove to the European Commission that judicial reform was going on.
Jacobs said that at first, the directors could be appointed in pilot courts and then in other courts, as needed, after which a new law has to be passed to enable the implementation of the next stage of the project.
An efficient judiciary is what every country that cares about the rule of law must have and Croatia cares about it, said Paul Vandoren, the head of the EU Delegation to Croatia, adding that an efficient and independent judiciary made it easier for citizens to exercise their rights, and that it had important economic and financial consequences, as it could attract foreign investment.
Judicial reform is a key element of the EU accession process, whose progress is being closely monitored also after the completion of the accession talks, he said, warning that the number of pending cases in the last calendar year had gone up 5.29 per cent.
According to Justice Ministry data for 2011, there were 827,102 pending cases at all Croatian courts as of 31 December 2011, up 5.29 per cent on the year. The number of new cases in 2011 went up 0.86 per cent, from 1,639,570 in 2010 to 1,653,640 in 2011.
Commenting on the figures, Supreme Court president Branko Hrvatin said Croatia had reduced the number of municipal courts from 107 to 66, of which 34 are criminal courts, and that the downsizing would continue.
In the last five years, the number of cases pending more than three years that were disposed in the first instance went up more than 36-37 per cent per year. The increase in the number of pending cases refers to the second instance at county courts, Hrvatin said, adding that between 66,000 and 70,000 cases were disposed in the second instance every year.
The increase in the number of pending cases from 25,000 to 30,000 refers to magistrate courts, while the number of pending criminal cases dropped from 49,000 to 28,000. The number of criminal cases pending more than three years was 15,150 in 2005 and about 3,000 at the end of 2011 and is expected to fall below 2,000 at the end of this year, said Hrvatin.
"This shows that we are following the situation, that we will continue to follow it, constantly adopting measures in order to improve the figures, but never at the expense of quality," said Hrvatin.