ZAGREB, 12 August, 2021 - The Croatian Youth Network, an umbrella association of NGOs bringing together young people, on Thursday stated that as many as 76.9% of young Croatians aged between 18 and 34 still lived with their parents, which made this NGO make inquiries about the government's youth policies.
The NGO underscores that in terms of the share of young people living with their parents, Croatia tops the EU rankings.
On the occasion of 12 August, observed as International Youth Day (IYD), the Croatian Youth Network sent requests to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and the state secretary Željka Josić, who is in charge of demographic affairs, about what has been done so far in connection with the recommendations which this network made a year ago.
The network insists that "a rising unemployment, housing insecurity, a lack of high-quality education, insufficient participation of young people in policy-making" are some of the problems adversely affecting the status of young Croatians.
It warns that the statistics show that during the COVID-19 pandemic as many as 8,000 people aged between 21 and 29 are out of work in the country.
The Croatian Youth Network criticises the authorities for a change of models of financing NGOs representing youth interests.
It says that the recent reduction of funds for the capacity strengthening of nongovernmental associations from 700 million to 100 million kuna will adversely impact the survival of those organisations that are not budgetary users while they have 16,000 people on their payroll.
(€1 = HRK 7.5)
