Politics
Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Proceedings Against Businessman Miroslav Kutle in Diona Case Discontinued
ZAGREB, 17 March, 2021 - The Zagreb County Court on Wednesday discontinued proceedings in a case against runaway businessman Miroslav Kutle in which he was charged with having siphoned HRK 120 million from his former company Diona. The court's indictment division determined that the prosecution had failed to prove war profiteering on Kutle's part, and since the statute of limitations had expired on the main incriminating activity, white-collar crime, the court rejected the indictment. The court believes that charges of war profiteering cannot be proven by merely maintaining that abuse in business operations with which Kutle was charged is war profiteering because it happened…
Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Minister Ivan Malenica Expects State Attorney to Investigate Football Mogul Zdravko Mamić's Judge Bribe Claims
ZAGREB, 17 March, 2021 - Minister of Justice and Public Administration Ivan Malenica said on Wednesday that he expects the State Attorney to urgently investigate claims made by football mogul Zdravko Mamić who has accused Supreme Court Chief Justice Đuro Sessa and Osijek County Court judges of corruption. "I trust that the competent bodies will urgently check Mr Mamić's claims and the content of the (USB) stick which I am not familiar with at the moment, and that they will quickly determine whether the accusations, which I consider grave and serious, are founded," said Malenica, adding that Mamić said that he had given a USB stick…
Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Parliamentary Opposition: Additional Rights For War Veterans Unnecessary
ZAGREB, 17 March, 2021 - Some parliamentary opposition parties on Wednesday criticised amendments to the Act on the Rights of Homeland War Veterans, saying that they unnecessarily expanded rights for that group, while the ruling majority dismissed their claims. Damir Bakić of the Green-Left Bloc said the bill was harmful as it introduced in more than one way additional and not necessarily needed benefits, both financial and non-financial, for war veterans and members of their families. "That will additionally move them away from society and real life, as if we were creating a new caste for which special rules apply,"…
Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Electronic Media Act Will be Liberalised, Says Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek
ZAGREB, 17 March, 2021 - Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek said on Wednesday the Electronic Media Act would be liberalised and that one of the options was allowing the vertical concentration of the media in Croatia. "We will liberalise that law in the part concerning the regulation of concentration. However, in that case we are considering certain other instruments which generate or ensure media pluralism. I mean the 'must offer' or 'must carry' concepts, but an agreement is yet to be reached on this," she told the press. The news and programming director of the N1 commercial TV, Tihomir…
Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Parliamentary Opposition Parties Comment on Accusations by Former Dinamo Zagreb Boss
ZAGREB, 17 March 2021 - Some of the Croatian parliamentary opposition parties on Wednesday expressed shock at Tuesday's statement by the convicted former boss of the Dinamo Zagreb football club, Zdravko Mamić, that he had given bribes to the Supreme Court president and Osijek County Court judges. "If what Mamić said is true, then he has brought upon himself even more serious charges than the ones he has been convicted of. If his claims turned out to be true, that would be one of the strongest blows to the foundations of this state, the Croatian judiciary. They would not make…
Tuesday, 16 March 2021
$480,000 Invested in Upgrade of Rijeka's Offshore Emergency Response Centre
ZAGREB, 16 March, 2021 - The refurbished building housing Rijeka's Maritime Crisis Centre for Faster Response to Any Disaster off Croatia’s Coastline was officially opened on Tuesday. The investment into the upgrade of this offshore emergency response centre in the biggest Croatian seaport totalled US$ 480,000, and the lion's share of the investment was provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. During the ceremony, the state secretary of the Croatian Sea, Transport and Infrastructure ministry, Josip Bilaver, thanked the U.S. administration and military as well as the US Embassy in Zagreb for this donation in the amount of HRK 3.2 million. The…
Tuesday, 16 March 2021
Parliament Committee Endorses Bill on Civilian War Victims
ZAGREB, 16 March, 2021 - The parliamentary committee on human and national minority rights on Tuesday endorsed a bill on civilian Homeland War victims, whose rights are currently regulated by a law from 1992 which, despite having been amended 12 times, does not cover all civilian victims. Under the bill, the rights can be exercised by Croatian as well as foreign nationals, provided they were Croatia's residents during the 1991-95 war. It is estimated that the bill will apply to 2,500 more beneficiaries. Among other things, the bill facilitates eligibility for the family disability allowance and increases the individual disability allowance.…
Tuesday, 16 March 2021
The State Electoral Commission (DIP) Tells Donors to Respect Law, Take Note of Allowable Amounts for Electioneering
ZAGREB, 16 March, 2021 - The State Electoral Commission (DIP) has advised companies and citizens who intend to make a donation to participants running in the May local election, to respect the law and take note of the maximum allowable amount that may be donated. All physical and legal persons intending to donate money, products or services are obliged to register all the relevant information and should be issued with a receipt by the recipient party or independent slate. Donors must not have any debts to the state or local authorities. If donations are made in products, then the value of these must be…
Tuesday, 16 March 2021
Public Ombudswoman Lora Vidović: "Absence of Parliamentary Debate Has Many Repercussions"
ZAGREB, 16 March, 2021 - In her report on 2020, Public Ombudswoman Lora Vidović warns that her recommendations are less and less complied with, which, she believes, can also be attributed to the fact that the parliament has still not discussed her reports for 2018 and 2019, a fact that has a number of long-term repercussions. "An analysis of the government's opinion on the report for 2019 shows that the competent bodies acted or act in only 20% of the recommendations, which is less also in relation to the report for 2015 (29%), which the parliament did not adopt," says Vidović, whose…
Monday, 15 March 2021
Plenković: Croatia Expects to Join Eurozone and Schengen in 3 Years
ZAGREB, 15 March, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in an interview with the Politico news website published on Monday that it was reasonable to expect that Croatia would enter the eurozone and the Schengen area by the second half of 2024. "The idea is to do both — accession to Schengen and the eurozone — by the end of this government’s term, so the second half of 2024," Plenković said. "It’s tough, but reasonable." The European Commission said in 2019 that Croatia had fulfilled all the technical requirements for entry into the Schengen passport-free travel zone, and this should…
Monday, 15 March 2021
Croatian PM Expresses Sorrow for Having Not Ordered More Vaccines
March the 15th, 2021 - The Croatian PM Andrej Plenkovic has expressed his sorrow for having not ordered more doses of the coronavirus vaccine and his frustration at how things are playing out. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, in an interview with the influential European news portal Politico, the Croatian PM said that looking at things from today's perspective, he is sorry that he did not order larger quantities of coronavirus vaccine for Croatia, but also explained how difficult it was to guess which pharmaceutical company would be the fastest to register and the most successful in mass production. "In times of…
