The 48-page report, which refers to 2014, says, among other things, that six Croatian nationals were found to have stayed in the territory under ISIL's control and that two of them were involved in fighting; it says that radicalised women travel to that territory as well and describes a case of a minor who was prevented from joining Islamist groups in Syria. Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, fewer than 20 Croatian nationals have joined Ukrainian troops, and eight are currently there, according to the report.
The level of Islamist terrorist threats in Croatia is low, says the report. The number of adherents of the radical interpretation of Islam in Croatia is small - several dozen people - and most of them are not supporters of terrorist methods. However, the departure of Jihadists from countries in Croatia's neighbourhood to fight on the side of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq is particularly worrying. They are reported to return to their countries of origin following their experience on foreign battlefields. SOA estimates that for the time being there is no direct threat to Croatia from Jihadists in Syria or returnees, but cannot rule out a possible threat from individuals acting on their own.
There also remains the medium and long-term threat that trained returnees, radicalised and traumatised by their war experience, in contact with terrorist structures, could serve as executors or logistical support for terrorist attacks.
Six Croatian nationals have been found to stay in the territory controlled by Islamic State. Along with Croatian citizenship, most of them have the citizenship of some other country. They have in common the fact that before their radicalisation they left Croatia or did not live in it. Two persons have been found to have participated in combat activities.
As for foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq from Croatia's neighbourhood, SOA says that most such fighters come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia (Sandzak region) and Macedonia. Since 2012 around 600 Jihadists have left those countries to join ISIL, some of them have been killed and some have returned. The number of returnee fighters from Syria in neighbouring countries is relatively small.
The number of people from Europe fighting on the side of ISIL has climbed to around 4,500, says the SOA report.
The use of social networks for terrorist purposes continued to grow, with ISIL using them especially to recruit new fighters.
The part of SOA's report related to extremism warns that Chetnik movement organisations and supporters in Croatia's neighbourhood and beyond are still active. They are in contact with similar organisations in Croatia and other organisations and individuals promoting Great Serbian ideology, SOA says.
In 2014, the agency registered organised departures of Croatian volunteers to Ukraine, where they joined Ukrainian troops.
A small number of members and their poor organisation make both left and right extremist organisations in Croatia a minimum threat to the security situation in the country, SOA says, and also reports extremism in sport fans' groups.
As a NATO and EU member and due to its geopolitical position, Croatia has been exposed in recent years to intelligence activities of countries which perceive the EU and NATO as a security threat or challenge. Their agents in general operate as diplomats in embassies. Their activities particularly focus on collecting data on dissonant views in the EU and NATO on crisis spots and energy projects.
In their work, those foreign services try to influence public opinion by abusing the Croatian media for their interests, for example regarding the role of NATO and the EU in the current crisis areas, by depicting Croatia's foreign policy and allies in a negative light, the report says.
Some foreign intelligence services are also involved in business and industrial espionage and are interested in information on important economic projects and new technologies, says the report.
As for corruption, SOA notes that public procurement procedures are particularly sensitive to corruption and attempts to syphon money from the state budget due to their financial value and the importance of the public sector for the national economy.
In 2014 SOA collected data showing that during the privatisation of a major company, in which the state holds a significant ownership share, responsible persons in that company abused their powers to acquire a significant number of shares to the company's detriment, thus becoming significant shareholders, the report says, describing in detail how this was done.
SOA also reports that the stepped up control of the state borders caused most of the Balkan smuggling route to move away from Croatia's territory, which resulted in a decline in criminal activities. Currently the most frequently used land route for the smuggling of migrants is close to Croatia's territory, passing through Serbia and Hungary, according to the report.
The decline in the number of illegal migrants in Croatia that started in 2013 continued even more intensively in 2014, with the number of asylum applications going down by 50%.
Members of criminal groups from the region continued to use Croatia as a safe haven, using the logistical support of the Croatian criminal underworld.
SOA also registered contacts between members of domestic and international criminal organisations and active or former employees of some state institutions.
Members of criminal groups from neighbouring countries also tried to invest in Croatia in an attempt to cover up the source of illegally gained money.
The fact that Southeast Europe, including Croatia, is an alternative route for cocaine shipments coming from South America to Europe was confirmed last year.
In 2014 SOA also focused on establishing locations of individual and mass graves of persons gone missing in the 1991-95 Homeland War, notably in the Danube region, in cooperation with members of the public. SOA also collected information on war crimes and on the whereabouts of persons charged with war crimes.
In its report, SOA also analyses the security situation in its neighbourhood, noting that even though it is insufficiently consolidated in terms of politics, security and economy, that region does not pose a more significant security threat. The regional security situation is marked, among other things, by a continued activity of Great Serbian extremist organisations and the appearance of new ones, with cases of historical revisionism. Members of Chetnik movements were reported to have joined pro-Russian forces in the Ukraine conflict, says SOA.
The SOA report also analyses conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, the Ukraine crisis and other security trends in Europe's neighbourhood.
SOA says that last year it sent around 290 reports each to the President of the Republic and the Government. The agency also reports to other state bodies (Parliament, the National Security Council Office, the Office of the State Prosecutor, the Ministry of the Interior, etc) and it sent them around 8,700 pieces of intelligence information in 2014. It carried out 5,933 background checks, the highest number ever in a single year. It processed 16 cases of threats to persons under protection and issued 598 reports regarding the movement and stay of domestic and foreign protected persons.
The agency's budget amounted to HRK 324,743,626, around nine million less than in 2013 and around 40 million less than in 2011.