CRO-IGF 2023 (Croatian Internet Governance Forum) — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

1. The sixth CRO-IGF met on 25 May 2023 at the Grand Hotel Adriatic in Opatija, within the 46th MIPRO ICT conference — 47 participants, and the first edition in roughly three and a half years, since December 2019.
2. Two topics shared the day: the UN's Global Digital Compact (GDC) and the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), with Croatia signalling that HAKOM would become its national Digital Services Coordinator.
3. With the AI association CroAI and the network-operators group NOG.hr joining the organising committee, this restart edition put the UN process and EU regulation on one table.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on CRO-IGF 2023 (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)

(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. The Global Digital Compact — Hopes and Doubts About the UN Process

Sessions: Panel 'GDC, Global Digital Compact' (moderated by Desiree Milošević, co-chair of the RIPE NCC Cooperation Group; introductions by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, CroAI and NOG.hr)

• Ahead of the UN Secretary-General's GDC and the 2024 Summit of the Future, the panel kept returning to one principle: the technical community gives the best advice on how policies can actually be implemented and must be part of policy-making [1]
• Scepticism was recorded too — can questions this big be resolved in the UN format alone? — alongside a concrete proposal to open seats in Croatia's Summit delegation to the private sector, academia and civil society [1]
• Framing AI as 'what the internet was for the last 30 years, AI will be for the next 30', panellists weighed the difficulty of regulating a technology without an agreed definition and the risk that regulation brakes small start-ups [1]

2. The Digital Services Act — HAKOM Prepares to Become Croatia's Coordinator

Sessions: Panel 'DSA, Digital Services Act' (moderated by Domagoj Maričić, head of legal at HAKOM; introduction by the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development; with A1 Hrvatska, Vukmir & Partneri and AST Law)

• Panellists laid out the DSA's aim — a safe, predictable online space with special protection for minors — and its tiered obligations, and revealed Croatia's plan: several supervisory bodies sharing tasks, HAKOM as Digital Services Coordinator, and an implementing law in parliament by year-end [1][2][3]
• Operators welcomed the DSA as balancing regulation long imposed on telecoms, then pressed the 'fair share' case that large content providers should help fund infrastructure — citing the 170 billion euro needed for the EU's Gigabit Society [1][2][3]
• Croatian intermediaries were reported to be turning to law firms over practical compliance, and the panel called for stronger horizontal coordination of digital policy within Croatia [1][2][3]

3. Back After Three and a Half Years — New Faces, Old Homework

Sessions: Overall proceedings (as recorded in the official final report and the CARNET/HAKOM announcements)

• CARNET's official report archive holds nothing for 2020–2022, and the 2023 report itself says 'the sixth Croatian IGF' — documenting a restart after a gap of some three and a half years since December 2019 [1][2][3][4]
• The organising committee gained the AI association CroAI, the operators' group NOG.hr and Telemach, while the venue returned to the 2016 formula: an independent event inside the MIPRO conference in Opatija [1][2][3][4]
• The digital divide was called a still-major challenge for Croatia, needing both regulation and subsidies to guarantee basic connectivity nationwide — and the report again logs the series' oldest homework: civil society was a minority among the 47 participants [1][2][3][4]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What did this meeting decide?

A. Nothing binding — but two live processes were explained and debated in public: Croatia's approach to the UN's Global Digital Compact, and the national DSA set-up that makes HAKOM the Digital Services Coordinator.

Q. What was the most contentious topic?

A. Who pays for the network. Operators pushed the 'fair share' argument that big content providers should contribute financially to infrastructure — and candid scepticism was voiced about whether the UN format alone can settle questions this large.

Q. Why should I care?

A. The DSA applies to any service reaching EU users, and each country's coordinator is where enforcement happens. The forum is also a case study in restarting a stalled dialogue after the pandemic.

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 2023 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.

Sources & References

1. Croatian Internet Governance Forum CRO-IGF 2023 – Final Report (PDF) — CRO-IGF組織委員会（CARNET公式サイト掲載） (accessed 2026-07-11)
2. Šesti hrvatski Forum o upravljanju internetom（第6回開催告知） — CARNET (accessed 2026-07-11)
3. Šesti hrvatski Forum o upravljanju internetom（第6回開催告知） — HAKOM（クロアチア・ネットワーク産業規制庁） (accessed 2026-07-11)
4. 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 8 June 2023, 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