The Act on the Implementation of the CBAM Regulation introduces three bodies and fines of up to 67,000 euros

The Croatian Parliament has passed the Act on the Implementation of Regulation (EU) 2023/956, which transposes the obligations of the European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) into Croatian law. The Act was published in the Official Gazette (Narodne novine) No. 128 of November 6, 2026, as act 1516, and enters into force on January 20, 2027.

The Act was voted on by Parliament at the session on October 30, 2026, and was promulgated by the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović by decision of November 4, 2026, under class 011-02/26-02/84. The Act itself bears class 022-02/26-01/101 and was signed by the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament Gordan Jandroković.

Three Competent Authorities and Division of Tasks

The Act establishes the competent authorities, their powers, as well as misdemeanor provisions and sanctions for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2023/956 of May 10, 2023, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2025/2083 of October 8, 2025, on the simplification and strengthening of the mechanism. Implementation is also ensured for Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1773 on reporting obligations during the transitional period.

The competent authorities, each within its scope, are:

• Ministry of Environmental Protection and Green Transition – reviews CBAM declarations, determines the number of CBAM certificates, and issues decisions on monetary fines;
• Ministry of Finance, Customs Administration – grants, monitors, and revokes the status of authorized CBAM declarant, controls imports, and imposes administrative fines;
• Croatian Accreditation Agency – accredits legal entities as verifiers according to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2551.

Supervision is also divided: the Ministry supervises part of the obligations from Articles 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 33, and 35 of the Regulation; the Customs Administration supervises part of Articles 5, 10, 11, 17, 25, 25a, and 27; and the Croatian Accreditation Agency supervises Article 18 of the Regulation. The authorities are obliged to exchange information with each other and publish the list of accredited verifiers on their websites.

Fines from 100 Euros per Certificate up to 67,000 Euros

The misdemeanor section of the Act elaborates on the sanctions from Article 26 of the Regulation. An authorized CBAM declarant who fails to surrender the required number of certificates shall pay 100.00 euros per CBAM certificate, increased by the European consumer price index; a reduced fine is provided for when the number of certificates is incorrect due to information from a third party.

Fines are prescribed for more serious offenses:

• from 13,000.00 to 67,000.00 euros for a legal entity – an authorized CBAM declarant who fails to submit a declaration or submits it with incorrect data, fails to ensure verification of embedded emissions, or fails to maintain records for four years;
• from 660.00 to 3,300.00 euros for the responsible person within the legal entity;
• from 3,300.00 to 10,000.00 euros for a tradesperson.

For unreported emissions, the penalty amounts to 10.00 to 50.00 euros per tonne for a CBAM declarant who does not maintain the records necessary for calculating embedded emissions, or 50.00 to 100.00 euros per tonne for a reporting declarant if the report was not submitted, if it is inaccurate, or if more than two incomplete reports have been submitted consecutively. For an importer who is not an authorized CBAM declarant, the Customs Administration imposes an administrative fine in an amount three to five times greater than the penalty per certificate.

Money from certificates goes to the Environmental Protection Fund

Funds obtained from the sale of CBAM certificates are paid into a special account of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund and are used for the purchase of certificates and for the measure from Article 109, paragraph 4, point m) of the Climate Change and Ozone Layer Protection Act (“Official Gazette” no. 67/25).

The fine is paid into the state budget within 30 days of the decision becoming enforceable. An appeal is permitted against the decision on the fine, and the second-instance administrative procedure is conducted by an organizational unit of the Ministry of Finance. By paying the fine, an importer who is not an authorized CBAM declarant is released from submitting the CBAM declaration and surrendering certificates for the goods covered by that fine.

The Customs Administration also monitors compliance with the unique mass-based threshold from Article 2a of the Regulation and receives information from the Commission regarding importers who have reached at least 90% of the threshold. The Act enters into force on January 20, 2027, so importers covered by the mechanism will operate within the new national framework from that date.

The Act was published in the Official Gazette (Narodne novine) no. 128 of November 6, 2026, under serial number 1516.

“I proclaim the Act on the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2023/956 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 establishing a carbon border adjustment mechanism, which was adopted by the Croatian Parliament at the session on October 30, 2026.”
— President of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanović, Class: 011-02/26-02/84, Reg. No: 71-10-01/1-26-2, Zagreb, November 4, 2026.