The High Administrative Court has overturned the decision o…

The High Administrative Court of the Republic of Croatia has annulled the Decision on the Repeal of the Decision on the Method of Providing Public Waste Collection Services in the City of Zadar, which was adopted by the City Council of the City of Zadar on November 27, 2024. The judgment, case number Usoz-20/2025-4 dated September 30, 2026, was published in the Official Gazette (Narodne novine) no. 122/2026 on October 26, 2026, under official reference 1462, together with the dissenting opinion of Judge dr. sc. Sanja Otočan (case number Usoz-20/2025-8).

The legality review procedure of the general act was initiated by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Green Transition (OIB 59951999361, Slavonska avenija 6, Zagreb). The Council decided at a session held on September 30, 2026, composed of:

Blanša Turić, President of the Council
dr. sc. Sanja Otočan, Member of the Council
Senka Orlić-Zaninović, Member of the Council
Snježana Horvat-Paliska, Member of the Council
Kristina Senjak Krunić, Member of the Council
Senior Judicial Advisor Ivana Mamić Vuković, Recording Secretary

What was repealed by the contested decision

The contested decision consisted of two articles. The first article repealed the Decision on the Method of Providing Public Waste Collection Services in the City of Zadar, adopted on March 26, 2024, at the 27th session of the City Council of the City of Zadar (»Glasnik Grada Zadra« 5/24), based on Article 66, paragraph 1 of the Waste Management Act (»Narodne novine«, 84/21 and 142/23) and Article 27 of the Statute of the City of Zadar.

The second article directed the competent Administrative Department and the Management of the company Čistoća d.o.o. to urgently draft an adequate decision on the method of providing public services, »for the purpose of preventing age, property, and any other discrimination, as well as collective injustice caused by the arbitrary application of the current Decision«. The contested decision bears class 351-01/23-01/75 and registry number 2198-1-01-24-13, and was published in »Glasnik Grada Zadra« 17/24.

Why the court determined that the decision was not legal

The court deemed the request well-founded. The key reason is of a formal-legal nature: the contested decision was adopted »solely on the basis of a statutory provision, and without the appropriate application of substantive law«, therefore, in the court’s assessment, it was not adopted on a valid legal basis and is consequently illegal. In doing so, the court referred to its own practice, according to which a statutory provision cannot by itself be the basis for adopting a general act, which implies that a general act can be amended, supplemented, or repealed only through the same procedure by which it was adopted.

The decision was annulled based on Article 162, paragraph 3 of the Administrative Disputes Act (»Narodne novine«, 36/24 and 39/26). Pursuant to paragraph 4 of the same article, the annulled act ceases to be valid on the day the judgment is published in the »Narodne novine«, i.e., October 26, 2026.

Ministry objections and background of the dispute

The petitioner stated in the request that the repeal of the decision on waste collection, without it being simultaneously replaced by another such decision, is contrary to the purpose of the municipal waste collection system and the public interest prescribed by the Waste Management Act. In doing so, they also referred to the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act and the Right to Access Information Act.

From the documentation provided by the Mayor of the City of Zadar, as stated by the petitioner, it is evident that the main reason for adopting the contested act was dissatisfaction caused by the price increase of the public service provider, the company Čistoća d.o.o. from Zadar. The following accompanying acts were also included in the file:

Decision of the Mayor of the City of Zadar, class 351-01/23-01/75, registry number 2198-1-02-24-16 dated December 4, 2024, by which the contested decision was suspended from application
Decision of the central state administration body responsible for local self-government, class 04001/24-02/449, registry number 514-09-2-25-2 dated January 17, 2025, by which the previous decision was confirmed as well-founded
notice to the petitioner dated December 18, 2024.

The City Council of the City of Zadar, although duly summoned, did not submit a statement regarding the allegations of the request.

Dissenting Opinion of Judge Otočan

Judge dr. sc. Sanja Otočan issued a dissenting opinion in which she disagrees with the majority. In her understanding, illegality does not arise from the fact that the substantive legal basis was not stated in the preamble of the decision, as the authority of the representative body arises from the Constitution and the law, and not from the preamble of a general act. She considers that the authority to adopt a general act also includes the authority to repeal a previous act of the same adopter, regardless of whether there is a specific legal provision that explicitly allows it, and that the failure to state a substantive legal provision in the preamble did not result in the illegality of the contested decision.

What the judgment means for public service users in Zadar

The judgment removed the legal effect of the decision by which the City Council of the City of Zadar in November 2024 completely abolished the framework for providing the public service of municipal waste collection in its area, without simultaneously replacing it with a new one. Thus, the issue of the organization and price of the mandatory minimum public service returns to the responsibility of the Zadar city bodies, which will have to decide whether and how to regulate this service in accordance with the Waste Management Act. For the citizens of Zadar, the judgment is directly relevant because it affects the price and availability of a service which, as stated in the judgment, is of interest to the Republic of Croatia and is performed to avoid threats to human health and environmental pollution.

Source: Narodne novine, official gazette of the Republic of Croatia, no. 122/2026 of October 26, 2026, document no. 1462: Judgment of the High Administrative Court of the Republic of Croatia, case number Usoz-20/2025-4 of September 30, 2026, and Dissenting Opinion of the judge, case number Usoz-20/2025-8, pp. 13–16.