The Companies Act regulates four different corporate status changes, and the merger of joint-stock companies is one of them. Merger occurs when one or more joint-stock companies, without undergoing liquidation proceedings, transfer their entire assets to another company, and the shareholders of that company receive shares in exchange for the transferred assets. Through the merger process, the acquiring company becomes the universal legal successor of the merged company. To successfully complete the merger process, all the steps prescribed by the law must be followed. First and foremost, the boards or executive directors of the companies involved in the merger must enter into a merger agreement. In the agreement, it is essential to specify the share exchange ratio. The next step is to prepare a written merger report. The management must prepare a comprehensive report in which they legally and economically justify the merger agreement. One or more auditors must review the merger agreement for each company involved in the merger. To make the merger agreement valid, it must be approved by the general assemblies. The final step in implementing the merger is the registration of the merger in the court register. In the Republic of Croatia, the Companies Act allows for the merger of domestic joint-stock companies with joint-stock companies established under the laws of other European countries. Such a merger is called a cross-border merger. The legal framework for this stems from European legal provisions. Through an amendment to the law in 2007, Croatia implemented Directive 2006/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on cross-border mergers of companies with share capital. Through an amendment to the law in 2019, Croatia transposed the new Directive 2017/1132 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on certain aspects of company law. The main issue in applying the directive arose from its "national orientation." Comparing the articles of Directive 2006/56/EC and Directive 2017/1132, it is correct to note that there have been no significant changes in the new Directive. Although there have been changes in individual articles, the fundamental issue of national orientation remains present. Cross-border mergers can have an extremely favorable economic impact, so it is not desirable for the national orientation of the Directive to deter joint-stock companies and reduce their motivation to carry out such mergers.