Politics

ZAGREB, March 25, 2020 - U.S. Ambassador in Zagreb Robert Kohorst on Wednesday said on his Twitter profile that he would follow the Prime Minister's example and donate his March salary for Zagreb's earthquake relief. "Given the challenge Croatia is facing, I will follow PM Andrej Plenković and the Croatian Government and donate my March salary to help those affected by COVID-19 and the Zagreb Earthquake," Kohorst tweeted. "This is the least we can do, considering how Croatia welcomed us to your country," Kohorst underlined and added #WeStandTogether. Two strong quakes struck Zagreb on Sunday morning, the first measures 5.5…

ZAGREB, March 25, 2020 - Slovenia's Interior Minister Ales Hojs on Wednesday stated that deploying Slovenia's army on the border with Croatia is essential because of illegal migration and because the police have additional duties during the current epidemiological crisis. Activating our army to guard our southern border will be essential in the current situation with the spread of coronavirus, Hojs told a press conference in Ljubljana. The activation of the relevant law that would give the army certain police powers and the possibility of protecting the border requires the support of two-thirds of the legislature. That is why Hojs…

ZAGREB, March 25, 2020 - The Speaker of the Croatian Parliament, Gordan Jandroković, announced on Wednesday he would request an opinion of the Constitutional Court on "restrictions of civil liberties" imposed as part of efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. "I will request an opinion of the Constitutional Court on whether we should apply Article 17 of the Constitution, meaning that the Croatian Parliament should decide by a two-third majority on restricting certain freedoms, or we can do so by directly applying Articles 16, 32 and 50 concerning freedom of movement and freedom of enterprise without Article…

ZAGREB, March 25, 2020 - Croatia has welcomed the agreement on the launch of EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, underscoring that one of the priorities of Croatia's presidency of the Council of the EU has thus been fulfilled. EU ministers of European affairs, who make up the General Affairs Council, on Tuesday reached a political agreement on opening accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, and the formal decision is to be made in writing after the political consensus was reached at a video-conference. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković wrote on Twitter that Croatia fully supported the…

ZAGREB, March 24, 2020 - The Bosniak National Council in Croatia on Tuesday condemned the insulting messages which appeared on the Zagreb mosque on Tuesday morning, saying that this act of desecration was an expression of serious chauvinism and xenophobia. "At a time when we are being shaken by the greatest crisis in recent history, when human solidarity is needed more than ever, conduct like this is impermissible. We demand that the relevant institutions, even though they are justifiably involved in managing the crisis caused by the coronavirus and earthquake, should find the perpetrators," the president of the Council, Armin…

ZAGREB, March 24, 2020 - The Croatian parliament will hold its sessions in the historic building of INA oil company given the damage Parliament House has suffered in earthquakes this past Sunday, and its members will discuss two government bills on Wednesday. One is a bill to amend the Electronic Communications Act to facilitate access to information on persons violating self-isolation orders in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic. The government proposes that the law be amended so as to include an article under which in extraordinary situations the health minister would be authorised to ask telecommunications companies to provide…

March 24, 2020 - The Croatian government has opened a donation fund to help those affected by the Zagreb earthquake and the coronavirus. The campaigns are titled “Together for Zagreb" and "Croatia against coronavirus”.  Index.hr reports that the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement that Zagreb and its citizens were hit by the strongest earthquake in the last 140 years, measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale. In order to enable the payment of donated funds through the state budget account for the purpose of earthquake rehabilitation, the decision to open a donation account in the "Together for Zagreb" action…

Strasbourg, 24.03.2020 - The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has published today its fifth round evaluation report on Croatia dealing with preventing corruption in government (top executive functions) and the police. GRECO’s report recognises that Croatia has the tools in place to promote integrity and prevent corruption in the public sector. At the same time, however, the report points to where improvements should be made, both in legislation and in practice. To start with, GRECO considers that developments in recent years have shown a need to ensure that integrity standards also apply to people working in an advisory capacity for…

ZAGREB, March 24, 2020 - The Zagreb crisis management head Pavle Kalinić on Monday announced that the city authorities would set up a special support fund and that many, including Russia's Ambassador to Croatia, Anvar Azimov, the cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg offered support to the quake-hit Croatian capital city. Kalinić told the commercial RTL broadcaster that experts from the Faculty of Civil Engineering and the Faculty of Architecture had been also engaged to help in efforts to assess the extent of damage on buildings in the city. He recalled that statics experts had inspected 450 damaged buildings during…

ZAGREB, March 23, 2020 - Construction and Physical Planning Minister Predrag Štromar said on Monday that more than 7,000 buildings would be assessed for damage after a strong earthquake hit Zagreb on Sunday, and that 150 civil engineers were currently on the ground. "All buildings will be visited and all analyses will be made in a few days," said Štromar, commending the Chamber of Civil Engineers for offering volunteers. Štromar said he did not have final figures on the number of damaged facilities and that reports were still coming in. Following analyses, lasting solutions will be defined, but the current…