Croatia holds 0.86 % of the EU population. Its government supports mandatory scanning of private messages, or the widest scanning scope in Council, since 12 Nov 2025.
Supports Last checked 22 October 2026
What the government has said
“This regulation does not provide for any mass surveillance of communications. The European Union wants this to become mandatory, not voluntary.”Ministry of the Interior, 14 October 2025, translated from Croatian
Receipt: Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, ministry statement, 14 Oct 2025
In Council it was clearly disappointed when detection orders were dropped (Nov 2025) and wants the widest scope: known and new material and grooming (June 2026).
How it voted in the Council
- Negotiating mandate, 26 November 2025
- yes The Council position adopted in Coreper: voluntary scanning only, no detection orders. Coreper does not publish votes; the split was reported the same day by the Czech news agency CTK.
- Chat Control 1.0, 23 July 2026
- yes The vote that brought back the temporary rules: voluntary scanning of private messages allowed until 3 April 2028.
A government can oppose mandatory scanning and still vote for the voluntary regime. The two are listed separately for that reason. Council votes need 15 states with 65 % of the population; four states with more than 35 % block.
How its MEPs voted
On 9 July 2026 the European Parliament voted on a motion to reject the Council text that brought back voluntary scanning, Chat Control 1.0. Rejection needed 361 votes and got 314, so the text passed. Of the 12 MEPs elected in Croatia, 6 voted to reject it, 4 voted against rejection, 0 abstained and 2 did not vote.
- 6 for rejection, that is against voluntary scanning
- 4 against rejection, letting the text pass
- 0 abstained
- 2 did not vote
The government line above concerns mandatory scanning; this vote concerned the voluntary regime. They are different questions, which is why both are shown. Source: roll-call vote 195775 as published by the European Parliament and compiled by HowTheyVote.eu; all 27 delegations side by side on the governments page.
Who decides in Croatia
- Minister
- Davor Božinović, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior; his ministry gave the line of 14 Oct 2025. Justice Minister Damir Habijan
- Ministry in charge
- Ministry of the Interior; Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation
- Permanent representation
- Ambassador Irena Andrassy, Permanent Representative (Coreper II); Paula Letunić, Deputy Permanent Representative (Coreper I)
Source: vlada.gov.hr/clanovi-vlade/128
Timeline
- Council vote on Chat Control 1.0, the temporary rules. Croatia: yes.
- European Parliament votes on rejecting Chat Control 1.0; the motion fails, the text passes. MEPs elected in Croatia: 6 for rejection, 4 against, 0 abstained, 2 did not vote. source
- Council negotiating mandate adopted in Coreper. Croatia: yes.
- Recorded as supports. Receipt: Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, ministry statement, 14 Oct 2025 source
Sources
- Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, ministry statement, 14 Oct 2025 (receipt)
- Council minutes, 12 Nov 2025 (‘clearly disappointed’ by the removal of detection orders), via netzpolitik.org
- Council minutes, 10 Jun 2026 (widest scope), via netzpolitik.org
- Permanent Representation of Croatia to the EU, members
- Method: what the labels mean and where the population shares come from
This page is one of 27 records behind Where the 27 governments stand. Together the governments against hold 32.9 % of the EU population; a blocking minority needs more than 35 %.
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Data for all 27: JSON · CSV. Found a mistake? Tell us; we correct openly and say what changed.
Cite as: Brussels Record, “Croatia: position on Chat Control”, last checked 22 October 2026, https://brusselsrecord.com/member-states/croatia/
