The 3-Line Summary
- The first Croatian IGF (CRO-IGF 2015) met on 6 May 2015 at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) in Zagreb, with 41 participants and a four-stakeholder Organising Committee initiated by the regulator HAKOM.
- Two sessions covered .hr domain management and internet governance at large — the IANA stewardship transition, ICANN accountability and the EU court ruling that struck down the Data Retention Directive — with unanimous support for the multistakeholder model.
- The record is candid about first-year growing pains: net neutrality was dropped from the agenda at the last minute and civil society was thin on the ground — a revealing case study in how a national IGF gets started.
Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on CRO-IGF 2015 (Croatian Internet Governance Forum) draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.
Conference at a Glance (from official records)
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Official name | CRO-IGF 2015 (Croatian Internet Governance Forum) |
| Edition | 1st edition (inaugural) |
| Dates | 6 May 2015 |
| Venue | Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER), University of Zagreb, Zagreb |
| Theme | Regional governance themes |
| Participants | 41 |
| Host | A four-stakeholder Organising Committee (government, academia, industry, civil society) initiated by the network regulator HAKOM |
(See the source list at the end of this article.)
Discussion Digest — from the Session Records
Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.
1. .hr Domain Management — Putting the ccTLD on the Public Stage
Sessions: Session 'Internet Domains Management' (presentation by Nataša Glavor; co-moderated by Glavor and Gordan Gledec)
- Nataša Glavor, CARNet's deputy CEO, presented how the .hr country-code domain is governed, comparing Croatia with neighbouring and similar-sized countries and outlining development plans [1][3]
- The open discussion that followed ranged from introducing DNSSEC into .hr operations to remedies against abusive domain-name registrations [1][3]
2. Internet Governance 101 — Opening a National Dialogue in the Year of the IANA Transition
Sessions: Introductory presentations (Mislav Hebel, HAKOM; Andrea Beccalli, ICANN) followed by a panel moderated by Ana Katalinić Mucalo (HAKOM)
- Mislav Hebel of HAKOM mapped the global IG ecosystem — the IANA stewardship transition, ICANN accountability enhancements and the IGF mandate extension — while ICANN Brussels' Andrea Beccalli gave ICANN's perspective [1][2]
- On the panel, the government stressed designing governance that keeps the internet open and free while letting states meet public responsibilities; industry defended the internet as a permissionless platform for innovation; law scholar Marko Jurić flagged the EU court ruling invalidating the Data Retention Directive [1][2]
- All panellists backed the multistakeholder model and called for more topics, parallel sessions and stronger civil-society participation in future editions [1][2]
3. Forty-One People, One First Step — the Vanished Net-Neutrality Session and the Civil-Society Gap
Sessions: Overall proceedings and participant feedback (as recorded in the official final report)
"The first Croatian Internet Governance Forum has managed to bring the various national stakeholders to the same table to discuss the future of the Internet (written feedback in the official final report)"
— Tihomir Katulić (Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb) [1]
"Too bad that more people were not involved, especially entrepreneurs. Time was also too short, as a number of topics was left unaddressed (written feedback in the official final report)"
— Hrvoje Hadžić (Ericsson Nikola Tesla) [1]
- Three topics were planned, but HAKOM — one of the organisers — pulled net neutrality from the agenda shortly before the event, leaving two [1]
- The 41 participants were split evenly across government, industry and academia, but civil society was barely present — a gap the report itself frankly lists as homework [1]
Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered
Q. What did this meeting actually decide?
A. Nothing — it was an informal dialogue with no outcome documents. But it created, for the first time, one table where Croatia's regulator, ministries, universities, companies and civil society could discuss how the internet is run, launching an annual series.
Q. What was the most contentious point?
A. Less a fight than a gap: HAKOM dropped net neutrality from the agenda at the last minute, and civil society was almost absent — shortcomings the official report itself records candidly.
Q. Why should I care?
A. The .hr domain-management and DNSSEC debates apply to any country-code domain, and a four-million-person country bootstrapping its national IGF is a useful template for anyone building such dialogues.
What Is Croatia IGF? (for first-time readers)
Croatia IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.
Why It Matters to You
What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2015 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.
Sources & References
- Croatian IGF 2015 – Final report (PDF) — CRO-IGF組織委員会（CARNET公式サイト掲載） (accessed 2026-07-11)
- The First Croatian Internet Governance Forum announced (Croatian IGF) — HAKOM（クロアチア・ネットワーク産業規制庁） (accessed 2026-07-11)
- Prvi Hrvatski IGF（第1回クロアチアIGF開催ニュース） — domene.hr（CARNET運営の.hrドメインポータル） (accessed 2026-07-11)
- Forum o upravljanju internetom (CRO-IGF)（公式プロジェクトページ・歴代最終報告書一覧） — CARNET (accessed 2026-07-11)
Quotes are translated or condensed from the records listed above. Bracketed numbers [n] refer to the source list.
Related links
- IGF official (NRI list): https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/national-and-regional-igf-initiatives
- Japan IGF: https://japanigf.jp/
- Yuki Nakazawa's blog: https://nkzw.jp/category/igf/
Revision History
Rev. 1 — published 7 June 2015, 10:00 (Article published)
Rev. 2 — updated 17 July 2026, 12:32 (Fully revised into the in-depth edition: added the 3-line summary, minutes digest, short talk, source list and diagrams (all quotes verified against the listed sources))
— 中澤祐樹
