Politics

ZAGREB, 7 Oct 2021 - The head of the border administration, Zoran Ničeno, said on Wednesday that the Police Directorate had formed a task force that would go into the field after the release of videos showing masked persons hitting migrants and pushing them back from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Earlier in the day, RTL television showed videos of men wearing ski masks pushing back migrants from Croatia across a backwater of the Korana river, hitting them with batons such as those used by riot police. Some of the men also wore vests like those of riot police. RTL said the footage was from…

ZAGREB, 7 Oct 2021 - Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez used his visit to Zagreb on Wednesday to open the door to Spanish companies which want jobs in Croatia to modernize railways and other infrastructure co-financed with EU money. "European funds represent a big opportunity for Spanish companies, world leaders in sectors such as transport, renewables, and food, to share their experience with Croatian companies," he said after meeting with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković, and President Zoran Milanović. In February, the Spanish company COMSA landed a €35.7 million contract to build waterworks in Metković, one of the biggest…

ZAGREB, 6 Oct 2021 - Croatia and Spain cooperate well in many areas, with €1 billion in trade, but the COVID-19 crisis has disrupted that process, so Prime Ministers Andrej Plenković and Pedro Sánchez said on Wednesday they would work on intensifying cooperation. "Croatian-Spanish trade is about €1 billion. We believe that's good. However, we've had certain oscillations during the COVID crisis. Today we talked about how to advance cooperation, how to make our private sectors cooperate as well as possible, notably by utilizing funds from the NextGenerationEU instrument," Plenković told the press after meeting with his Spanish counterpart. Sánchez, the first…

October the 7th, 2021 - The Croatian Recovery Plan, more precisely the Recovery and Resilience Plan (NPOO) has been talked about at length recently. In the challenging post-coronavirus age, at a time when global economies are still reeling from the unprecedented and utterly devastating impact of the global pandemic, few things are more important to Croatia than this massive EU payout. The Croatian Recovery Plan envisages as much as 9.5 billion kuna going directly to the country's much needed digital transformation, which should force Croatia well and truly into modern times and away from excessive paperwork, standing in lines and…

October 6, 2021 - The EFJ Annual Meeting 2021 comes to Zagreb to discuss European, local and global media freedom, as well as journalists' safety. Established on December 18, 1910, The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) is one of the oldest professional associations in modern Croatia. As expected, it is older than the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) that was established in 1994, but then again, as expected, the EFJ (being multinational) holds a much stronger position when addressing the typical troubles journalists face. The two associations collaborate really well, as is evident in EFJ's support to HND in condemning Croatian PM…

ZAGREB, 6 Oct, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Wednesday he supported the announcement that the parliamentary majority will select Radovan Dobronić, his candidate, for Supreme Court president, adding that they could have done this last spring. Speaking to the press, he said they could have done that "last spring at least" instead of "haggling" over it for seven months as it was clear that he would not recommend any current Supreme Court member for that position. Appointment of new ambassadors "dramatically late" He denied that it had anything to do with agreeing on new ambassadors, saying their appointment, "which is important, is…

ZAGREB, 6 Oct, 2021 - The parliamentary Judiciary Committee on Wednesday gave a positive opinion on judges Radovan Dobronić and Marin Mrčela as candidates for Supreme Court president while Dobronić, whom the President already announced as his recommendation to the Sabor, received unanimous support from the committee. The committee that interviewed candidates at the start of September unanimously supported Judge Dobronić with 11 votes while Mrčela received seven votes in favour, one against (Nikola Grmoja) and three abstentions. The Judiciary Committee will forward its opinion to President Zoran Milanović, who then recommends his candidate to the Sabor. The President has previously said that his…

October 6, 2021 - After having been given its first award back in 2020, seeing the gorgeous green region of Lika awarded Green Destination 2021 this year provides some hope for this lovely, but poor and deserted region. Lika, the largest Croatian region, remained among the hundred top green and sustainable destinations in the entire world in 2021. This valuable recognition (which Lika was first recognised for in 2020), was assigned by the Global Green Destination trust fund. The organisation started rating global destinations worldwide seven years ago, and as their website says, they benefit the destinations, representatives, and stakeholders…

ZAGREB, 6 Oct, 2021 - The World Homeless Day (observed on 10 October) and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and Social Exclusion (observed on 17 October) will be marked in Zagreb on Monday, 11 October, to draw attention to the problems faced by 2,000 people in Croatia who live in abject poverty. The data on the number of homeless persons in Croatia vary. The Croatian Homeless Network estimates that about 2,000 people live in abject poverty, or without a roof over their heads. However, if persons with insecure and inappropriate housing are taken into account, their number…

ZAGREB, 5 Oct, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday the ruling coalition would back the candidacies of Radovan Dobronić and Marin Mrčela at tomorrow's meeting of the parliamentary judiciary committee on the selection of the president of the Supreme Court. Speaking to the press after a meeting of the parliamentary majority, the prime minister said Dobronić presented a good programme and that Supreme Court judge Mrčela's programme was good too, so both deserved a positive assessment. Dobronić meets the terms of the public call for applications, he delivered an important decision in the case of loans pegged to the Swiss franc,…