20 June 2014 - President of the Croatian Constitutional Court, Professor Dr Jasna Omejec, together with Dr Snježana Bagić, Vice-president and Ms Slavica Banić, Judge, received the President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Professor Vassilios Skouris, who visited Croatia upon the invitation of the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament. President Skouris was acompanied by Professor Dr Sinša Rodin, Judge of that Court from Croatia and Mr Peđa Grbin, President of the Committee for the Constitution, Standing Orders and Political System of the Croatian Parliament.
In her introductory remarks President Omejec presented the workings and jurisdiction of the Croatian Constitutional Court. She pointed out that we keep track of the jurisprudence of the EU Court of Justice, especially in cases of mutual interest, like the judgment Križan and Others (2013), in which the Court clarified both the exent of discretion of national courts to make a reference to the Court for a preliminary ruling and the concept of the last instance court. The Croatian Court has not been in a position so far to decide on the need to make such a reference.
The talks were also held on the EU's accession to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Namely, the European Commission has asked the Court to give its opinion on the draft agreement on the accession and President Skouris expect for this task to be completed by the end of this year. At the end, President Skouris forwarded an open call for our judges to visit the Court in Louxembourg.
