MANAGING CROATIAN ENERGY LEGISLATION WITH EUROPEAN UNION ENERGY PACKAGE

Since Croatia started acquiring the status of a candidate for European Union (EU) membership it has been adjusting its legislation with EU requirements. Moreover, Croatian electricity sector is facing a numerous challenges and significant changes in legislation are needed in order to successfully complete the process of market liberalization. The biggest challenge in Croatian electricity sector is to achieve a 20% share of renewable energy sources (RES) in gross final energy consumption by the year 2020. Croatia currently has about 15.1% of RES in gross final energy consumption and one of the ways to achieve its goal is to increase production capacity from renewable energy sources in accordance with energy consumption. Furthermore, the opportunities for establishing economic growth through innovation and a sustainable competitive energy policy have been very well recognized in Croatia. Therefore, the overall investments in energy production from renewable sources will have significant impact on growth and employment in rural parts of country which is in line with EU RES strategy.