Zoran Mamić Released From Custody, Has to Report to Bosnian Police Once a Week
ZAGREB, 19 May, 2021 - Former Dinamo football coach Zoran Mamić will remain free while in Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, he will have to report to the police once a week and his personal documents have been temporarily confiscated, the court in Bosnia and Herzegovina decided on Wednesday.
Zoran Mamić was arrested early Wednesday morning by officers from the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) based on an arrest warrant issued against him in Croatia.
After that Mamić was handed over to the court in Sarajevo, Judge Branko Perić determined his status including his citizenship of BiH. The judge ruled that Mamić would remain free with precautionary measures and was ordered to give in his personal identification documents.
The court did not discuss the matter of Mamić's extradition considering that Croatia has not sent a formal request yet.
A Croatian Supreme Court ruling upheld a ruling sentencing Mamić to four years and eight months in prison after being convicted of siphoning money from the Dinamo Football Club.
After that he escaped to BiH and requested that he be allowed to serve his sentence in that country which was rejected. Zagreb County Court then issued an international arrest warrant against him.
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President Zoran Milanović Comments on Outcome of Local Elections, Sources of Parties Funding
ZAGREB, 19 May (Hina) - President Zoran Milanović said on Wednesday that he could agree with comments that the Social Democratic Party (SDP), whose member he used to be before he became the president, had experienced a fiasco in the elections for Zagreb mayor and the city assembly.
When it come to the performance of the SDP and other political parties in the local elections in other cities and municipalities in Croatia, Milanović said that there would be interesting things and that one should wait for the outcome of the second round of the voting on 30 May.
As for insinuations by the Homeland Movement (DP) party that the We Can political party and its coalition partners had received financial support from abroad, Milanovć said that the claims "are insane."
That can be claimed by people whose whole life is focused on earning money and royalties. This is not only insulting but also insane for Croatia in the 21st century, said Milanović.
He went to on to say that the recent campaigns by political parties were much cheaper than, for instance, the campaign conducted by the deceased mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandić, in 2009.
Milanović accused Bandić of "having robbed the SDP which I led at the time." Millions were spent then. That was paid by private donors, clients, mobsters of every sort, and in the end the party had to settle the bills, Milanović said.
He went on to say that political parties were financed from the state budget and not by some fanatic sects or Soros, alluding to the Hungarian-born American billionaire investor George Soros who founded the Open Society Foundations and who is perceived as a supporter of progressive and liberal political causes.
Milanović recalled that the We Can party won seats in the parliament in the 2020 elections, and this (the state budget) was the source of "legal and abundant financing", the president elaborated adding that any other source of financing of political parties is suspicious.
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Zagreb Stock Exchange Indices' Winning Streak Broken
ZAGREB, 19 May, 2021 - Amid a moderate trading on the Zagreb Stock Exchange on Wednesday the main indices fell slightly, ending their rising streak over the past few days, with the Podravka food manufacturer's stock drawing the most attention after it proposed a dividend of HRK 9 per share.
The Crobex fell slightly by 0.15% to 1,949 points, breaking its four-day climb. At the same time the Crobex10 weakened by 0.31% to 1,203 points, after rising for three days in a row.
Among the sector indices, the construction index fell by 2.13% while the transport sector strengthened by 0.97%.
Regular turnover amounted to HRK 9.25 million or 2.25 million more than the day before.
The highest turnover of HRK 3.3 million was generated by the Podravka company. The price of its shares weakened by 0.33% to HRK 600.
Podravka's management announced that the general assembly is scheduled for 29 June when shareholders are expected to decide on a HRK 9 dividend, just like last year.
The Valamar Riviera hotel group generated a turnover of HRK 2.33 million. Its shares closed at a price of HRK 29.7, up 0.67%.
A total of 42 stocks traded today, with 16 of them registering share price increases, 17 recording share price decreases and nine remaining stable in price.
(€1 = HRK 7.511281)
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Croatian Cup Final: Dinamo Wins Double Crown with 6:3 Win Against Istra 1961
May 19, 2021 - Dinamo and Istra 1961 met in the Croatian Cup final on Wednesday in Velika Gorica.
Dinamo defeated Istria 6:3 in the incredible Cup final and reached the 16th title in the Croatian Cup competition.
Dinamo took the lead in the 5th minute with a goal by Mislav Oršić, and Ademi increased it to 2:0 in the 9th minute. Dinamo's third goal was scored by Majer in the 33rd minute.
Istra sensationally reduced Dinamo's lead with two goals by Hara in the 52nd and 53rd minutes for 3:2.
However, Dinamo returned to a two-goal advantage in the 59th minute with an own goal by Šutalo.
Gržan reduced the lead to 4:3 in the 63rd minute from the penalty spot, and Mislav Oršić scored for 5:3 after a counter in the 73rd minute. Gavranović increased the lead to 6:3 in the 83rd minute, which was the final score of the match.
This is the 16th Cup title for Dinamo and the 12th double crown. Istria, on the other hand, played their second Cup final, the last of which was played in 2003 when they lost to Hajduk under the name Uljanik.
Dinamo thus rounded off perhaps the most successful season in the history of the club. The "Blues" won the double crown and reached the quarterfinals of the Europa League, in which they were defeated by the finalists of that competition, Villarreal.
On the other hand, entering the final is a great success for the Pula club, but Istria must now turn to a tough fight to stay in the First League.
On Saturday, Istra plays in the last round away against the runners-up in Osijek. Before the last 90 minutes of the season, Istra has one point more than Lokomotiva, who will visit Hajduk.
Interestingly, after coming to Dinamo in 1995, Damir Krznar won three consecutive double crowns, and now he has won a double crown on the Dinamo bench.
Source: HRT
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European Conference for Social Work Research: Croatian And Swiss Scientists Participate in Social Work Symposium
May 19, 2021 - Held in Bucharest, Romania, the European Conference For Social Work Research saw Croatian and Swiss scientists jointly participate in scientific issues of social work in Croatia and Switzerland.
Earlier in May, the University of Bucharest, located after the biggest city and capital of Romania, held an online edition of the European Conference For Social Work Research (ECSWR).
Swiss and Croatian teams jointly participated in the symposium „Opportunities and Obstacles in the Evaluation of Homelessness from a Lifeworld-oriented International Social Work Perspective“, which saw prof. Matthias Drilling and dr. Zsolt Temesvary represent their University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), and dr. Lynette Šikić Mićanović represent the Croatian Ivo Pilar Social Research Institute. The conference was organized by The European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA)
As stated by ESWRA's official website, the association was founded in 2014 with a goal to create social work research development, collaboration, and exchange across Europe. As the ECSWR conference saw overwhelming levels of engagement, the ESWRA association today counts 600 members from across more than 33 countries.
„ESWRA’s vision is to take forward the development, practice, and utilization of social work research to enhance knowledge about individual and social problems, and to promote just and equitable societies“, says ESWRA.
While Dr. Lynette Šikić Mićanović presented Croatia at the conference, she is also a member of the team that includes Suzana Sakić and Paula Greiner. Along with the aforementioned Swiss team, the Ivo Pilar Social Research Institute informed that the Croatian team participated in a joint research project called "Exploring Homelessness and Pathways to Social Inclusion: A Comparative Study of Contexts and Challenges in Swiss and Croatian Cities (No. IZHRZO_180631/1).
„This work is financed within the Croatian-Swiss Research Program of the Croatian Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation with funds obtained from the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Program”, says the Ivo Pilar Social Research Institute on its website.
Looking at the „Homelessness and Social Exclusion in Croatia“ science paper whose author is Lynette Šikić-Mićanović from 2010, its abstract suggests that „homelessness is a relatively new phenomenon in most Croatian cities and has been largely ignored by policymakers and social scientists“. So, Šikić-Mičanović's paper aimed to research and contribute new data on a previously unresearched social group to answer the urgent need for a fuller understanding of the perceptions and experiences of homeless people in Croatia.
„Based on the research findings of this study, a number of recommendations can be made for the provision of comprehensive information, services, and assistance to lessen social exclusion among homeless persons as well as to facilitate their routes out of homelessness“, says the paper. Based on scientific research, there are overall five recommendations, as follows:
1.) Special attention – apart from accommodation – needs to be paid to the quality (or lack) of services that homeless people urgently require, such as medical, counseling, legal, supportive holistic assistance from professional qualified and sensitised staff, and so on.
2.) Continual and systematic evaluation is required at shelters and among the wider homeless population by teams of qualified persons, researchers, and/or non-governmental organisations for the assessment and articulation of their needs, abilities, aspirations, and problems.
3.) Programmes need to be developed at the local level to meet different contextual needs. These could include more accessible (less public) soup kitchens, perhaps with special menus (e.g., for diabetics); the introduction of public bathhouses, day centres, doctor’s/dentist’s surgery, or subsidised accommodation for homeless persons, depending on the context.
4.) Volunteers from all age groups should be found and trained with a view to increasing public awareness of homelessness and social exclusion and dispelling the myths and stereotypes about homeless people.
5.) Former shelter users should be monitored and assisted with accommodation and other support services (e.g., utility bills, furniture, therapy, financial aid, help with education) to prevent them from becoming homeless again.
These recommendations are directly quoted from the scientific paper for the sake of accuracy, and hopefully, for a better tomorrow, the policies of the state will follow the scientific findings and discoveries in social sciences.
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PM Suggests that Defence Council Can Convene on Thursday or Friday
ZAGREB, 19 May, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday that he had responded to President Zoran Milanović's request for convening a session of the Defence Council and offered that the session could be held on Thursday or Friday morning.
We offered him two appointments: tomorrow or on Friday morning, so that this advisory body could be convened and that council has no role in decision making, Plenković said after the inner cabinet's meeting in Zagreb.
Commenting on the planned purchase of military jets on Tuesday President Milanović said that he had invited Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to call a session of the Defence Council on this topic together with him.
Plenković said today that his cabinet had been working on the analysis of all the bids for the combat aircraft procurement, and on Tuesday, a few ministers were informed of the process.
This process is extremely complex and demanding, Plenković said adding that the decision would be made public as soon as the government made it.
Plenković said that Milanović "is trying now jump on the bandwagon" concerning the combat jets decision ahead of NATO's summit meeting, whereas he had refused to appoint his envoy to the interdepartmental commission authorised to decide on the matter.
Asked by the press whether the Defence Council's meeting could be an opportunity for the heads of state and government to meet and overcome their conflicts, Plenković answered that this would not be a topic on the meeting's agenda.
"You have a deceitful man who is insulting the whole political scene, while many pundits are trying to reduce it to political one-upmanship. This is not political one-upmanship between us. This is unprecedented behaviour (of the president) towards a series of stakeholders and interlocutors on the political scene," the premier said.
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Annual Inflation in EU and Croatia in April Highest in Two and a Half Years
ZAGREB, 19 May, 2021 - Annual inflation in the European Union in April reached its highest level in nearly two and a half years, and Croatia also followed this trend, according to a report released on Wednesday by the EU statistical office, Eurostat.
EU annual inflation was 2.0% in April, up from 1.7% in March, and this was its highest level since November 2018. In April 2020, the annual inflation rate was 0.7%.
The euro area annual inflation rate rose by 0.3 percentage points from March to 1.6% in April, its highest level since April 2019. In April 2020, the annual rate was 0.3%.
The highest annual inflation rates were recorded in Hungary (5.2%), Poland (5.1%) and Luxembourg (3.3%), while the lowest rates were registered in Greece (-1.1%), Portugal (-0.1%) and Malta (0.1%).
In Croatia, annual inflation in April increased by 2.1%, its highest level since August 2018. In March, the annual rate was 1.6%.
The annual inflation rate of 2.1% was also recorded in Germany and Belgium.
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Electoral Roll to be Updated by Next Election
ZAGREB, 19 May, 2021 - Public Administration Minister Ivan Malenica said on Wednesday that by the time of the next election the electoral roll will have been cleaned up, following comments by reporters that it does not reflect the real number of voters considering how many people have emigrated but are still registered.
There are 3,660,165 voters registered in the electoral roll that the ministry has for the local election on 16 May, with 60,000 fewer eligible voters compared to the election in 2017, Malenica told reporters.
"Naturally, there are certain situations when the relevant bodies cannot determine whether a certain person has residency in Croatia. That is up to them to determine and that is a data that the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration has eliminated as being relevant to the electoral roll," said Malenica.
Asked whether 250,000 Croatians who registered in Germany in 2013 had cancelled their registration in Croatia, Malenica briefly said that that question should be sent to the Interior Ministry.
He believes however, that it is necessary to check the relevancy of data in the electoral roll against the population census and residency and address people are registered at.
Asked whether he would propose for the electoral roll to be audited, because it is constantly being said that too few people take to the polls, Malenica said that regulations would be changed before the next election and that the electoral roll would be updated.
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"Trust Me, I've Been There" Campaign Invites Guests to Spend Vacation in Croatia
ZAGREB, 19 May, 2021 - The Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) has launched its high-season promotional campaign "Trust me I've been there" across 12 key markets, the HTZ reported on Wednesday.
The campaign will be conducted in Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Russia until the end of July.
The HTZ says on its web site that the campaign is being "implemented through activities across social networks including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, as well as via high-viewership TV channels, top-rated and most read portals and newspapers in each market and through outdoor advertising on billboards, digital panels and public transport."
"The goal of the campaign is to invite guests to spend their vacation in Croatia, as well as to further position our country as an attractive, safe and well-prepared destination," says the HTZ.
The HTZ director Kristjan Staničić was quoted as saying that this campaign "is different from all previous ones, i.e. that is personalized and adjusted to the preferences of each individual market."
"It is with this goal that we decided to create unique messaging, and the main faces of the campaign are satisfied guests who invite their fellow citizens to come to Croatia and shared first-hand information that our country is an ideal and safe destination for summer vacation," he explained.
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Malenica Announces Talks to Amend Agreement on Enforcement of Sentences with Bosnia
ZAGREB, 19 May, 2021 - Justice and Public Administration Minister Ivan Malenica announced on Wednesday that he would meet with his Bosnian counterpart early next month to discuss amending the bilateral agreement that regulates enforcement of prison sentences.
His announcement came after former Dinamo Zagreb coach Zoran Mamić was arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday morning on a Croatian warrant.
Malenica said that the Croatian Ministry of Justice and Administration would prepare documentation to support the extradition request and that the competent court in Bosnia and Herzegovina would decide whether the criteria for Mamić's extradition to Croatia were met.
"It is for the competent court to establish all the facts based on the law on international judicial assistance in criminal matters and the bilateral agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina," Malenica told a press conference in Zagreb.
Asked if he expected the same scenario as for Zoran's brother Zdravko Mamić, whose extradition had been rejected, Malenica would not speculate, saying that the matter would be decided by the competent court in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Malenica said he had talked with Bosnia and Herzegovina's justice minister and that they would meet at the start of June to discuss launching the procedure to amend the bilateral agreement.
Zoran Mamić has been sentenced in Croatia to four years and eight months in prison for siphoning funds from the Dinamo Zagreb football club. He was arrested in Međugorje, southern Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday morning and handed over to the State Court which will decide on Croatia's extradition request.
Mamić has confirmed earlier that he holds dual Croatian and Bosnian citizenship and wants to serve the prison sentence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which the Croatian court has rejected.
The Bosnian State Court is expected to reject the extradition request on the ground that Mamić holds Bosnian citizenship.
As for the case of Zdravko Mamić, who also wants to serve his prison term in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Malenica said that the Ministry had been notified by the Osijek County Court that the conditions under the law on international judicial assistance were not met and that the Ministry was acting accordingly
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