Minister of Justice and Administration Ivan Malenica officially opened the new building of the Municipal Court in Split, renovated under the project “Reconstruction of the Municipal Court building in Split and promotion of e-services”, worth over 12.4 million euros.
As this brought the court back to the city centre after 17 years, the vision of a more modern judiciary closer to citizens has been successfully achieved.
In this context, Minister Malenica explained that investment in infrastructure also meant investing into a framework for better working conditions and changes that should be visible in the courts’ performance.
“The value of the investment is 12.4 million euros and it is the result of joint efforts of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration, Norwegian experts and all the employees of the Municipal Court in Split”, the Minister said, adding that a ‘justice square’ was thus established in another Croatian city.
The new building of the Municipal Court in Split is part of a large judicial investment project worth over 440 million euros, which includes new premises of the County Court in Šibenik (2021), a new building of the Land Registry Department of the Municipal Civil Court in Zagreb (2022), and the renovation of the Palace of Justice in Zagreb for the first time since 1970 (2023), as well as the renovation of the buildings of the County Court in Sisak and its Permanent Service in Petrinja.
“In the cycle ahead of us, we will begin the construction of the largest judicial project - the Zagreb Justice Square, which will set the standards for future construction of all courts.”
“In cooperation with the World Bank, we plan to build justice squares in Rijeka and Velika Gorica, and new capacities in Bjelovar and Novska. Each of these projects is a pledge for a change in the judiciary”, said Minister Malenica.
The Minister stressed that external changes must be accompanied by changes from within, which is why the Ministry has been implementing comprehensive changes that include investments, better organisation, better regulations and effective human resources management.
“With the rise in salaries not only of judges, but also of civil servants and other court employees, we have not only corrected the state of stagnation we found, but with the new legislative framework we have made way for new prospects”, he said.
“By changing key procedural laws, we have created the preconditions for faster and more efficient judicial processes. These regulatory changes were accompanied by digital solutions - e-Communication, e-Case, Real Property Registration and Cadastre Joint Information System, and soon the sound recording and publication of all court decisions," he added.
“By implementing the action plans, we have provided courts with a better performance monitoring tool and, for each court, we have detected an area where the level of efficiency should be raised”, the Minister concluded.
President of the Municipal Court in Split Dražen Maravić added to the Minister’s statements saying that 25 % of judges of the Split Court are young but experienced judges.
“No matter how beautiful a building is, it is nothing without people - without quality colleagues, who, besides being professionals, should be good people, and when talking about human resources, I would especially like to thank Minister Malenica. In these 23 months of my term in office, I would say that this man has done more for the Municipal Court in Split than his predecessors in at least a decade before that”, said President Maravić.
Photo: MPU/HINA/Mario STRMOTIĆ/ ms
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