Croatia has a rich natural heritage, with an abundance of water, remarkable coasts, natural parks and diverse marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Its economic development depends on effective natural resources management, increased investments and ensuring compliance with the EU’s environmental legislation.
The country’s economy depends largely on the tourism sector, which both relies on Croatia’s natural assets (such as pristine coastal areas) and puts pressure on them.
Highlights
Croatia’s bathing waters are among the cleanest in the EU, with 96.7% of them rated excellent quality, 2.4% good quality and just 0.5% of sufficient quality. No bathing water has been reported with poor quality.
Croatia has good performance in recycling construction and demolition waste, with 81.8% in 2022, above the EU average of 79,8% and increasing since last measurement in 2020.
Main Challenges
Circular Economy
Reforms and investments in waste management and the circular economy are still needed to move away from reliance on the disposal of municipal waste in landfills, which remains significant. Croatia missed the 2020 target to recycle 50% of its municipal waste by a wide margin and requested to postpone the attainment of the 2025 target for preparing for reuse and recycling 55% of municipal waste and the 65% target recycling plastic and glass packaging waste.
Nature and biodiversity
Progress is being made on Natura 2000 sites, but more effort is needed to complete this work and put in place conservation measures for all sites to mitigate pressures coming from agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy and water management. Improvements are also needed for the use of the appropriate assessment provided by the Habitat Directive, which is subject to infringement procedures.
Pollution
Urban wastewater collected in Croatia is not being properly treated as required by EU law. The level of compliance was extremely low in 2020 (7%), and investments are being implemented at a slow pace.
Governance and investment
The investment gap to meet Croatia’s environmental objectives is an estimated €1.2 billion per year, or about 1.81%, which is above the EU average of 0.77%.
Croatia needs to improve public access to the courts for environmental planning (particularly water, nature, and air quality) and to also better inform the public about their access to justice rights. These issues were already raised in 2022, but there have been no visible improvements.