Croatian rep offices of EU corporations will cease to exist as of EU accession

May 2013

Ministry of Economy, as the registry authority for the Croatian representative offices of corporations seated outside Croatia officially announced that, as a result of amendment to the Croatian Trade Act, the representative offices of corporations seated in EU member countries will cease to exist by operation of law as of the date of Croatia’s accession to EU. Under the Ministry’s announcement, the founding entities of such representative offices who intend to continue or extent their business operations in Croatia are required to change local corporate form by way of establishing a local branch office or an affiliate. Given that the announced termination of the representative office is expected to occur on 1 July 2013 (by Croatia’s accession to EU) and that no grace period has been provided to the founding entities in this regard, the above announcement of the Ministry will strongly affect the business of all corporations seated in EU having established representative office in Croatia.