Right to access information and re-use information is exercised in accordance with the Right to Access Information Act (Official Gazette, no. 25/2013, 85/2015). The aim of the Act is to enable and ensure the exercise of the right to access information guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, as well as to the re-use of information by natural and legal persons through openness and publicity of public authorities.

Right to access information is based on the principles of publicity and free access, timeliness, completeness and accuracy of information, the principles of equality, the principle of disposition of information and, in accordance with Article 5, paragraph 5 of the Act “includes the rights of the user to request and receive information, as well as the obligation of public authorities to provide access to the requested information, i.e. to publish information regardless of the request when such disclosure arises from an obligation determined by law or other regulation”.

Information, within the meaning of the Act (Article 5, paragraph 3) is “any information held by public authorities in the form of a document, record, file, register, regardless of how it is presented (written, drawn, printed, recorded, magnetic, optical, electronic or any other record), made by the authority alone or in cooperation with other authorities or obtained from another person, and created within the scope or in connection with the organization and work of public authorities”.

Re-use of information, in accordance with Article 5, paragraph 6 of the Act “means the use of information of public authorities by natural or legal persons for commercial or non- commercial purposes other than the original purpose for which the information was generated, within the framework of statutory or other regulation of a given scope or work that is normally considered a public affair. The exchange of information between public authorities for the purpose of performing tasks within their scope does not constitute re-use”.

The principle of mutual respect and cooperation, in accordance with Article 9.a of the Act, implies that “relations between public authorities and users are based on cooperation and provision of assistance and mutual respect of human dignity”.

The Minister of Administration issued the Ordinance on types and content of licenses establishing terms for the re-use of information (OG 67/17)

This by-law regulates the types and contents of permits that determine the conditions for the re-use of information by public authorities. The Ordinance and the open license shall be published in Croatian and English on the Open Data Portal, the website of the central state administration body responsible for general administration and the independent body responsible for protection, monitoring and promotion of information reuse within 30 days of this Ordinance’s entry into force.