Politics

ZAGREB, Dec 12, 2020 - Although it is a small country, Croatia must be a country with great climate ambitions, President Zoran Milanovic wrote on his Facebook account on Saturday, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the conclusion of the Paris Climate Agreement. "The climate crisis is still our biggest challenge, and taking urgent and ambitious measures is the only guarantee for the preservation of health, progress and prosperity," the Croatian president writes. In this context he called for great climate ambitions and for raising awareness of that climate protection and economic growth can go hand in hand. The head…

ZAGREB, Dec 12, 2020 - Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Friday that the amending of the Dayton Peace Accords or any strategic decisions could not be made without the consent and agreement of all the three constituent peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Dayton Agreement is what it is, and I cannot see any possibility of amending it without violence, and I do not think of a war when mentioning violence, I refer to mental violence and any other violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and everyone is aware that it could never pass in Bosnia and Herzegovina and it has always provoked…

ZAGREB, Dec 11, 2020 - In a brief debate at the end of the working week on Friday, Croatian MPs endorsed amendments that regulate the registration of residence for UK nationals due to the country's exit from the EU. The bill on nationals of the European Economic Area member-countries and their family members regulates procedures to apply for temporary/permanent residence for UK citizens and their families and related matters, said Zarko Katic, a state secretary at the Ministry of the Interior. According to the ministry's data, on 10 December 1,133 UK nationals were living in Croatia, of whom 773 had temporary residence and 360 permanent.…

ZAGREB, Dec 11, 2020 - Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) director Krunoslav Capak has said that the number of new coronavirus infections is still high, as is incidence, and that more than 50% of employees of care homes and their residents as well as medical workers want to get vaccinated. "Our figures are still high and they differ from county to county. Varazdin County continues to have the worst statistics, with incidence being almost twice as high as the average incidence in the country," Capak said on Friday at a news conference held by the national COVID-19 response team. The latest figures show that there are 4,396…

ZAGREB, Dec 11, 2020 - The head of the national COVID-19 response team, Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic, on Friday called on citizens to refrain from visiting their friends and relatives during the coming holidays, noting that the current epidemiological restrictions would be extended beyond December 21. Even though he announced the extension of the current regime, Bozinovic would not go into details or announce possible new measures, and when asked whether a ban on leaving one's place of residence was being considered, as had been the case in the spring, he said that the public would be informed about…

ZAGREB, Dec 11, 2020 - German Ambassador Robert Klinke on Thursday presented Croatian Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic with a German donation of ten vans and ten other vehicles for the Croatian border police worth €835,000. "Since 2000, the German Federal Foreign Ministry has donated to Croatian police €3.1 million worth of material and technical means, and we are grateful for that," Bozinovic said, adding that Germany was among those most familiar with the work of the Croatian border police. He said German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and the German government had publicly said a number of times that they were grateful for…

ZAGREB, Dec 11, 2020 - The interior ministers, Davor Bozinovic of Croatia and Ales Hojs of Slovenia, on Thursday held a video meeting on illegal migrants and the protection of border as well as on the regime of cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Slovenian New Agency STA reported. The minister agreed on seeking solutions for making it impossible for irregular migrants to cross borders illegally, the STA quoted the Slovenian interior ministry's statement as reading. They assessed the cooperation between the two ministries and the countries' police forces as good, adding that the operationally and strategically the cooperation has…

ZAGREB, Dec 10, 2020 - The Supreme Court has upheld two convictions delivered by the Split County Court for war crimes committed around Sibenik and Dubrovnik, making them final. In the first case, two Yugoslav People's Army officers, Admiral Slobodan Rajcevic and Captain Cedomir Borojevic, were convicted for targeting the coastal city of Sibenik on September 16-23, 1991, thereby committing a crime against civilians as well as causing extensive damage. Rajcevic was tried in absentia and sentenced to eight years and Borojevic, who pleaded guilty, to four. In the second case, Milorad Kovacevic was sentenced to 4.6 years for failing to prevent the torture of…

ZAGREB, Dec 10, 2020 - Croatia annually loses a town the size of Metkovic, Virovitica or Samobor as 24,000 people are diagnosed with malignant diseases each year and 14,000 die, Dragana Jeckov of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) warned in parliament on Thursday. Jeckov was speaking during a debate on the proposed national strategy for cancer prevention, which received the undivided support of parliamentary groups and individual MPs. She said that the fight against cancer was not a political or party issue but a safety issue that required a consensus. Jeckov said she was aware that the proposed framework would not…

ZAGREB, Dec 10, 2020 - Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic on Thursday led a delegation of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party who laid a wreath on the grave of the first president of independent Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, at Zagreb's Mirogoj Cemetery to commemorate the 21st anniversary of his death. Jandrokovic said that by commemorating Tudjman's death the HDZ showed respect for its founder and the founder of modern Croatia and for everything he had done so that the Croatian people would have their own state. "(Tudjman" is one of the few historical figures who managed to translate his vision…