Politics

March the 14th, 2021 - The Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has spoken out against the EU´s unfair vaccination rollout, standing up for the Croatian cause as the country is repeatedly left in the minus in terms of the number of vaccine doses it is owed and deserves. It has already been noted on several occasions in the Croatian media that Croatia is being left for dust as the vaccine rollout across the bloc continues. The country could have advanced far further than it has now and Kurz has some harsh words for the powers that be in the European Union…

ZAGREB, 13 March 2021 - The leader of the Civic Liberal Alliance (GLAS) party, Anka Mrak Taritaš, on Saturday announced her intention to run for the mayor of Zagreb. The slogan of her campaign is "Change I am not Afraid of". Presenting her programme, Mrak-Taritaš, said that there had been too many flippant projects and "we should seriously get to work." Mrak-Taritaš said that her party had initially negotiated with the We Can party about a coalition for the Zagreb mayoral race and later with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and admitted that the negotiations with both parties had failed. The GLAS chief dismissed remarks…

ZAGREB, 12 March, 2021 - In four years Croatia met 281 recommendations in eight acquis areas, successfully completing the Schengen evaluation procedure, the Interior Ministry said on Friday after a meeting of EU interior ministers who discussed security and migrations. The Portuguese presidency and Commissioner Ylva Johansson informed the Council that Croatia had successfully completed the Schengen evaluation procedure which began in June 2015 and ended in May 2019, the ministry said in a press release. In the most comprehensive evaluation of preparedness for membership of the Schengen area, Croatia met 281 recommendations in eight Schengen acquis areas, including 145 pertaining to external border…

March 12, 2021 - TCN welcomes back Courtney Long, with a thought-provoking piece on TCN as seen in Beijing and the realities of Zagreb lockdown inequality.  The last time I wrote for TCN, I made a few blunt observations about the Croatian government’s response to China in the early phases of the COVID19 outbreak. More specifically, I expressed concerns about Croatia’s acceptance of PPCs from China as well as its handling of the Pelješac Bridge project. I believed that these issues, as well as Croatia’s laser focus on tourism at the expense of other industries, could be detrimental to the…

ZAGREB, 12 March, 2021 - Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman on Friday thanked his Greek counterpart Nikolaos Dendias for his country's aid to Croatia after last year's devastating earthquakes. "I'm taking this opportunity to thank Minister Dendias for the generous and prompt humanitarian aid that Greece sent to earthquake-hit areas in Croatia," Grlić Radman said in Athens, where he arrived for an official visit a day after visiting Cyprus. "Greece itself was recently hit by strong earthquakes and I'm conveying our support and willingness to help," he added. Greece was struck by two tremors earlier this month, the strongest measuring 6.3 on…

ZAGREB, 12 March, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović on Friday said that Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković has done something that is unprecedented and impermissible by asking him, as the proposer, to supplement his draft decision on the selection of the Supreme Court president. Jandroković sent back Milanović's draft decision after identifying some shortcomings. Milanović said that Jandroković put his recommendation for the Supreme Court candidate "in a drawer," underscoring that Jandroković has no right to do so. "He has no right to do that, whatever the HDZ majority in the Committee on the Constitution, thinks," Milanović told reporters in Požega after attending an oath giving ceremony by the…

ZAGREB, 12 March, 2021 - Croatian parliamentary parties on Friday endorsed the proposal to ratify the Agreement on Mutual Protection of Classified Information between the governments of Croatia and Spain. During the discussion, Zvonimir Troskot (Bridge) noted that Croatia and Spain had had good bilateral relations since the 1990s, sharing the same principles and goals. "Both countries are facing the same challenges - migration, the fight against terrorism, climate change, Spanish companies are already present on our market, so why are we ratifying this agreement only now?" Troskot asked. Juro Martinović, State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice and Administration, said…

ZAGREB, 12 March, 2021 - Croatia is going to accept 13 unaccompanied migrant children from reception centres on the Greek islands as soon as they pass security clearance, the Večernji List newspaper said on Friday. All the children, 12 girls and a new-born baby, will be provided with adequate accommodation and all the necessary psycho-social and other assistance as they are traumatised by war and their stay in refugee camps. The children will be given the necessary assistance during integration into society, and the support of the local community will also be needed, the newspaper said. Croatia is one of…

ZAGREB, 11 March, 2021 - Croatia is ready to make its contribution to the Conference on the Future of Europe, in which Commission Vice-President for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Šuica will have one of the leading roles, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Brussels on Thursday. Croatia will make its contribution to the discussion on how to respond to global challenges together and how this Conference can improve the responses of the EU and its institutions to citizens' expectations and to numerous issues in the world which are now substantially different than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, Plenković told reporters after…

ZAGREB, 11 March, 2021 - Several contracts, worth 17.5 million kuna, for reconstruction of seaports and waterfronts in the broader Rijeka area were signed on Thursday by Sea and Transport Minister Oleg Butković and local authorities. The contracts envisaging the upgrade of ports on the islands of Krk, Rab and Lošinj as well as the coastal cities of Bakar, Mošćenička Draga, Novi Vinodolski, Crikvenica and Kraljevica are part of the Croatian Coast Renaissance project in which two billion kuna has been invested to date, and the lion's share of this amount has been ensured from EU funds. Minister Butković said today…