Speaking in a debate on the government-sponsored draft plan for the adjustment of national legislation to the EU acquis communautaire in 2007, Neven Mimica of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said that in the last three years the parliament had adjusted only 58 percent of the planned laws, while some laws, including ones on regional development, concessions and free legal aid had been transferred from year to year since 2004.
The government said that plans for legislative adjustment had been abandoned in cases of some laws because the results of screening showed that they did not need to be adjusted. The government also announced a review of this year's plan for May, when the results of the screening of the remaining negotiating positions are expected to arrive.
Nikola Vuljanic of the People's Party (HNS) warned that Croatia was now in a serious stage of accession talks and that it should therefore address plans for the adjustment of regulations more seriously.
Pero Kovacevic of the Party of Rights (HSP) warned that it was not clear from this year's draft plan which regulations would be adjusted to the European legislation and which to criteria presented in the course of membership negotiations.
Kovacevic said that the government was agreeing not only to requests from the EU, but also to blackmailing from some EU members, such as Italy and Slovenia.
He also pointed to the poor quality of the government-sponsored legislation, claiming that some bills were a word-by-word translation of European guidelines which meant little in Croatia and only contributed to legal insecurity.
"This parliament will be remembered for a legislative stampede and a myriad of regulations that cannot be implemented," Kovacevic said, recalling that the parliament had adopted 379 regulations since 2003, of which 72 percent was passed under urgent procedure.
"Such laws cannot be followed either by the state administration or legal professionals or citizens, and if we keep up this way, we will create total legal insecurity," Kovacevic said, warning that the government was late with the adoption of implementation regulations.