Five Years of Application of EU Law: An Analysis of Cases Involving Breaches of EU Law Against the Republic of Croatia and References for Preliminary Ruling by Croatian Courts

Abstract

Ulaskom u Europsku uniju Republika Hrvatska obvezala se poštivati određena pravila ‘igre’ koja su definirana i samim osnivačkim ugovorima (UEU i UFEU) i praksom Suda EU-a. U prvom dijelu rada istražuju se pravni problemi s kojima se Republika Hrvatska (dalje u tekstu: RH) susreće pri implementaciji i primjeni prava Unije nakon što je postala punopravna članica EU-a. Cilj je prvoga dijela rada analizirati u kojim područjima Europska komisija nalazi navodne povrede prava EU-a te će se u tom kontekstu analizirati preporuke Europske komisije upućene RH i postupci formalno pokrenuti na Sudu EU-a. U drugom dijelu rada analizirat će se primjena prethodnog postupka iz čl. 267. UFEU-a na hrvatskim sudovima s posebnim osvrtom na prethodna pitanja koja su u proteklih pet godina Sudu EU-a uputili hrvatski sudovi. Detektirat ćemo određene probleme i ponuditi rješenja kako poboljšati suradnju hrvatskih sudova sa Sudom EU-a, a sve s ciljem jedinstvena tumačenja i primjene prava EU-a.As a result of its membership in the European Union, the Republic of Croatia has undertaken the obligation to respect the “rules of the game” as defined both by the Founding Treaties (TEU and TFEU) and the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU. The first part of the paper explores legal problems faced by the Republic of Croatia in the implementation and application of EU law following its membership in the EU. The aim of this part of the paper is to analyze the areas in which the European Commission found alleged violations of EU law. In this context recommendations of the European Commission to the Republic of Croatia will be analyzed as well as proceedings initiated before the Court of Justice of the EU. The second part of the paper analyzes the application of requests for preliminary ruling based on Article 267 of TFEU submitted to the Court of Justice of the EU by Croatian courts over the past five years. We will focus on specific problems and offer solutions in order to improve the cooperation of Croatian courts with the Court of Justice of the EU with the aim of providing uniform interpretation and application of EU law