Politics

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - In the past few months inflation perception has grown strongly and the perceived inflation rate now exceeds 24%, which is much higher than the realized consumer inflation rate of 3.8% in October, the central bank (HNB) has said. Based on data from a survey on consumer confidence, Lucija Fioretti, Karlo Kotarac, and Davor Kunac of the Croatian National Bank's (HNB) research department have analyzed changes in inflation perceptions in Croatia as well as the reasons for the recent divergence between inflation perceptions and the realized consumer inflation rate. Since an unusually great divergence between inflation perceptions and the realized inflation…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - Sandra Benčić of the Green-Left Bloc (ZLB) on Tuesday said that they had collected 34 lawmakers' signatures to file an appeal to the Constitutional Court to test the constitutionality of COVID-certificates. "As we announced before, we are sending the request to the Constitutional Court to assess the constitutionality of the decision on COVID certificates, not because of its contents, or COVID certificates as such, but rather the way the decision was made," Benčić said in Parliament House. She believes that all decisions that restrict human rights during the pandemic, which is deemed to be an emergency situation,…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - Next year is very important because we expect a final decision on Croatia's accession to the Schengen and euro areas, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday, recalling that Croatia has access to about €25 billion from European sources for this decade. Addressing a launch conference for the Croatian-language special annual edition of the global magazine The Economist, Plenković said that Croatia has about €25 billion at its disposal for this decade, including regular funds from the seven-year European budget, funds from the NextGenerationEU, and about one billion euro for reconstruction following last year's devastating earthquakes. "That is more…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - The Agency for Science and Higher Education on Tuesday held a closing conference for a project aimed at improving the quality of higher education, describing the project as an important step in developing the Croatian higher education system. The value of the project, launched in 2016, was HRK 20 million, of which 85 percent was provided by the European Social Fund. Project manager Ivan Bišćan said that 54 procedures for the re-accreditation of higher education institutions and 114 procedures for the re-accreditation of postgraduate university programs had been carried out in the four years.  The Agency has…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - Labour Minister Josip Aladrović said on Tuesday that the job keeping measure was intended to remain in place until the end of the year in sectors where it was necessary and that Croatia was now moving to the job creation stage, for which more than a billion kuna has been set aside. "We have secured some funding for the shortened working hours measure and for the job keeping measure. We hope and expect that these measures will not be intense next year because we are moving to the job creation stage, for which we have secured…

ZAGREB, 14 Dec 2021 - Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Monday he doubted the EU would reach a consensus on imposing sanctions against Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, as advocated by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. "Croatia advocates dialogue. It's in our interest to insist on dialogue, to convince all leaders that it's necessary to view and experience Bosnia and Herzegovina as a sovereign and integral country, and that there's no room for any separatism," Grlić Radman said. Baerbock today took part in a Foreign Affairs Council meeting for the first time in her term and said the efforts…

ZAGREB, 13 Dec 2021 - The Catholic Archbishop of Sarajevo, Vinko Puljić, and the Grand Mufti of Bosnia's Islamic community, Husein Kavazović, thanked on Monday Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković for the help his government had provided to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Croatian prime minister, who is on an official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, after a meeting with the country's executive and legislative authorities' officials, also met separately, behind closed doors, with the leaders of three major religious communities, including Cardinal Puljić, Reis Kavazović and the Bosnian prelate of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Hrizostom Jević. The Archdiocese of Sarajevo said in a…

ZAGREB, 13 Dec 2021 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday the crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina should be solved through talks and agreements based on the Dayton peace agreement which, he added, would defuse tensions and ensure equal rights for all its inhabitants. He was speaking to the press in Sarajevo after meeting with the leaders of both houses of the BiH Parliament, including HDZ BiH party president Dragan Čović and SDA president Bakir Izetbegović. Plenković said that as a friendly country with great respect for BiH, Croatia wants to advance cooperation through political dialogue in order to support reforms leading…

ZAGREB, 13 Dec 2021 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said during a visit to Sarajevo on Monday that the bonds between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are unbreakable and that Croatia remains Bosnia and Herzegovina's greatest friend and its advocate in the European Union. Plenković is leading a government delegation on an official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. On arriving in Sarajevo on Monday morning, he met with his counterpart, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Zoran Tegeltija, and his ministers. The visit comes at a time when Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing the biggest internal crisis since the…

ZAGREB, 13 Dec 2021 - President Zoran Milanović decorated some participants of the Croatian Spring on Monday with the Grand Order of King Dmitar Zvonimir with Sash and the Croatian Morning Star for their outstanding contribution to Croatia's independence and integrity as well as to the building and progress of the Croatian state. The high decoration was awarded to Dražen Budiša, Ivan Zvonimir Čičak and Goran Dodig and posthumously to Jozo Ivičević Bakulić, Ljudevit Jonke, Ante Paradžik, Hrvoje Šošić, Marko and Vladimir Veselica.  On this day fifty years ago the arrests had already begun and the repression by the former state was in full swing. Intellectuals,…