Croatian 2025 state budget – on what grounds, when and what kind?

A budget is always the result of a political negotiation process. Estimating how might Croatia's budget for next year look like is an ungrateful task, especially in a situation where the parliamentary election saw the instalment of a new Government, of a slightly different political structure compared to the previous two. In previous years, mid-July was usually the period when the public – awaiting instructions for drafting the next year budget - had a pretty clear overview of the macroeconomic, fiscal and budgetary framework for the upcoming three years However, this year this is not the case. The websites of the Ministry of Finance and the Government make no reference to the 2025 state budget and 2026-2027 budget projections nor to the convergence programme that the Government usually sent to the European Commission by the end of April. The decision on the budgetary framework, which was to be adopted by the end of June, is also missing. If the reason why this information is lacking is related to EU-level events, the Ministry of Finance and the Government should keep the public informed.