e-Građani — Croatian citizen portal (2014)

e-Građani (e-Citizens) is the unified access portal to Croatian public services, launched on 10 June 2014. Foundational infrastructure: NIAS (Nacionalni identifikacijski i autentifikacijski sustav) for strong authentication, SDLI (Sustav digitalnih lozinki) for password distribution, and the list of Fina / AKD qualified certificates. ~80 government services are connected in 2026 — ePorezna, HZZO, HZMO, civil registries, cadastre, citizen e-Račun.

History — from HITRO.HR to e-Građani

Croatian digital modernisation started with businesses: HITRO.HR, launched in 2005 by Fina, is the first one-stop shop enabling j.d.o.o. (simplified LLC) incorporation in 24 hours. HITRO's success demonstrated that a shared portal was feasible.

Introducing the universal OIB in 2009 provided the technical bedrock: a single stable identifier valid across all administrations. Five years later, e-Građani launched in June 2014, the first citizen portal in Southeast Europe to integrate health (HZZO), pensions (HZMO), tax (ePorezna), civil registries (MUP), cadastre (Katastar), and school payroll (e-Učenici).

text e-gradjani-timeline.txt

2005-2010 | HITRO.HR — first business one-stop shop operated by Fina.
          | Enables j.d.o.o. company incorporation within 24 hours
          | without multiple in-person visits. Forerunner of e-Građani.
          |
2009-01-01 | Universal OIB — technical prerequisite for a unified
           | citizen portal.
          |
2014-06-10 | Official launch of e-Građani (gov.hr) under PM Milanović's
          | government. First services: ePorezna, HZZO (health), HZMO
          | (pensions), e-Učenici (school records).
          |
2014-2016 | Integration wave: MUP (digital ID cards), Sudski registar
          | (commercial register), Katastar (cadastre).
          |
2017-2019 | Coupling with the B2G Fina e-Račun mandate — citizens can
          | view and pay their public bills (water, HEP energy, local
          | taxes) via e-Građani.
          |
2018-2020 | eIDAS — EU mutual recognition of Croatian authentication.
          | Croatian eID usable to log into French, German, Italian
          | tax portals.
          |
2020-2022 | COVID-19 — brutal acceleration: ~600K new users, EU sanitary
          | certificates via e-Građani, COVID aid payments,
          | unemployment claims online.
          |
2023       | Euro migration — ePorezna, HZMO, HEP interfaces flip all
           | amounts to EUR.
          |
2024-2026 | EUDI Wallet preparation (Regulation EU 2024/1183) —
          | e-Građani must serve as the foundation for the Croatian
          | European Digital Wallet.

Governance — SDURDD + APIS IT + Fina

SDURDD (Središnji državni ured za razvoj digitalnog društva — Central State Office for Digital Society Development) is the digital-policy authority. It succeeded the earlier e-Hrvatska government bureau in 2020.

APIS IT d.o.o. is the technical operator: hosting, application development, 24/7 operations. 49% state-owned and 51% owned by the City of Zagreb, APIS IT also hosts Porezna uprava services (ePorezna), Fiskalizacija, and the upcoming HR EUDI Wallet ecosystem. Fina operates the qualified PKI (eOI — elektronički osobni identifikator), and AKD (Agencija za komercijalnu djelatnost) operates the biometric eID card, which embeds the qualified-signature function.

Technical schema — NIAS / SDLI / eIDAS

Three authentication levels coexist in NIAS:

"Substantial" level (eIDAS substantial) — SDLI (distributed password) or mToken (HOTP). Sufficient for ePorezna filings.
"High" level (eIDAS high) — Fina qualified eOI certificate or AKD eID osobna iskaznica. Required for electronic signature and sensitive transactions (cadastre, civil-registry changes).
Mobile authentication — Fina m-Token app (TOTP) as a supplement.

The third-party integration protocol is SAML 2.0 + WS-Trust, with OIB / name / LoA-level attributes propagated to applications.

text nias-saml-integration.txt

# NIAS integration example for a third-party service
# (SAML 2.0 model with Fina or AKD qualified certificate)

POST https://nias.gov.hr/sso/saml HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

SAMLRequest=<encoded request>
RelayState=https://my-app.example.hr/callback

# XMLDSig-signed response with OIB attribute:
<saml:Assertion>
  <saml:Subject>
    <saml:NameID Format="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:nameid-format:persistent">
      85821130368
    </saml:NameID>
  </saml:Subject>
  <saml:AttributeStatement>
    <saml:Attribute Name="hr.oib">
      <saml:AttributeValue>85821130368</saml:AttributeValue>
    </saml:Attribute>
    <saml:Attribute Name="hr.fullName">
      <saml:AttributeValue>Marko Markić</saml:AttributeValue>
    </saml:Attribute>
    <saml:Attribute Name="hr.loa">
      <saml:AttributeValue>high</saml:AttributeValue>   <!-- eIDAS LoA -->
    </saml:Attribute>
  </saml:AttributeStatement>
</saml:Assertion>

e-Građani vs e-Estonia vs France Connect

Dimension	e-Građani (HR)	e-Estonia (EE)	France Connect (FR)
Launch	2014	2002 (X-Road) + 2007 (eID)	2016
Authentication	NIAS + Fina/AKD eID	eID + Mobile-ID + Smart-ID	FranceConnect + private IdPs
eIDAS LoA	High	High	High
Connected services	~80	~2,000+ (X-Road)	~1,400
Pivotal identifier	OIB (11 digits)	Isikukood (11 digits)	France Connect / INSEE ID
Active users	~1.8M (~47% pop)	~1.3M (~99% pop)	~25M (~37% pop)

Adoption — ~1.8M active users

~1.8 million active e-Građani accounts in 2025 (SDURDD figures) — ~47% of HR population (~3.8M).
~25 million logins/year on average over 2024, with peaks in May (VAT / PIT filing) and September (back-to-school, e-Učenici).
Most used service: ePorezna (Porezna uprava) for annual and quarterly filings, followed by HZZO for online sick leave.
Mobile-first — since 2022, ~70% of logins come via m-Token / mobile app, highlighting the maturity of the HR park.

Common pitfalls

Confusing SDLI and eOI. SDLI = distributed password (substantial level). eOI = Fina qualified certificate (high level). Many users think SDLI suffices to sign a cadastre document — no, qualified signature is required.
Mistyped OIB at signup. The service checks the OIB by MOD-11 checksum. An inaccurate entry fails immediately. No detailed error message for security reasons.
AKD eID locked by attempts. Three wrong PIN entries and the card is locked — unlock requires an in-person MUP visit with the PUK code. Keep the PUK safe.
Thinking e-Građani replaces B2C e-Račun. The portal lets you view and pay public bills (HEP, local taxes). But B2B invoices remain in the Fina e-Račun / e-Poslovanje scope, separate from e-Građani.
Fina mToken transitional period. Fina rolled out HOTP->TOTP in 2024. Old HOTP tokens are progressively revoked — check validity date.

Foundations

Standards

Flagship messages

Tools