Communities may nominate their representatives for these two councils through Croatian institutions, associations, and other organisations, via the relevant diplomatic and consular missions.
Nominees should be respected individuals within their local communities, actively engaged in preserving and strengthening Croatian identity and fostering connections with the homeland. Candidates for the Youth Council must be aged between 18 and 30.
Members of both councils are elected for a term of four years.
Each council will consist of 65 members: 13 from Bosnia and Herzegovina (including one representative of the Catholic Church), 17 from the Croatian national minority (three from Serbia; two each from Austria, Hungary and Slovenia; and one each from Bulgaria, Montenegro, the Czech Republic, Italy, Kosovo, Romania, North Macedonia and Slovakia), and 35 from the Croatian diaspora.
Among the diaspora, five members will be elected from the United States and Germany, four from Australia, three from Canada, two each from Argentina and Chile, and one each from Austria, Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
One representative each will also be elected for the following regional groups: Denmark and Norway; Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru; and Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
It is estimated that around 3.2 million Croatian emigrants and their descendants live outside Croatia, with the largest communities found in the United States (1.2 million), Germany (500,000), Argentina (300,000), Australia (250,000), and New Zealand (100,000).