Politics

ZAGREB, January 22, 2020 - Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić appeared before County Court on Wednesday morning and pleaded not guilty to irregularities relating to waste management. Also accused are the owner of the CIOS waste management company, Petar Pripuz, and another 15 defendants. They all pleaded not guilty to charges that the City had awarded the job of waste disposal to CIOS without a tender. The trial was watched by civil society activists, including Dario Juričan, who recently ran in the presidential campaign and publicly criticised Bandić for corruption. A group of activists met Bandić outside the courthouse, booing at…

ZAGREB, January 22, 2020 - Outgoing Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said on Wednesday that the Three Seas Initiative, as one of the most important initiatives in Europe and the European Union, was important for Croatia, calling on her successor, Zoran Milanović, to support Croatia's participation in it. Grabar-Kitarović was speaking at a panel called: "Growing Europe: The Economic Vitality of Central and Eastern Europe", organised on the margins of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos by the Atlantic Council, Goldman Sachs and the largest Polish insurance group PZU. In her address, she presented the Three…

ZAGREB, January 22, 2020 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday that the talks he held at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos were very useful for the strengthening of bilateral relations as well as for the positioning of Croatia on the global scene in the context of its current EU presidency. "Yesterday and today we held a number of meetings... the talks in Davos were very useful, in terms of bilateral relations, our role regarding various topics and dossiers that are important for them in the context of Croatia's EU presidency and generally for our positioning…

ZAGREB, January 22, 2020 - The European Union is absolutely unanimous in the stance that citizens of all member states have to be exempted from the visa regime for entry into the United States, Croatia's Interior Minister Davor Božinović said in Brussels on Tuesday. Božinović presented a report to the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) on a Joint EU-US Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting that took place on 11 December 2019. The European Union was represented at the meeting by Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson of the then EU chair Finland, while Minister…

ZAGREB, January 21, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday it was good that the focus of the Croatian EU presidency was on the countries of South-eastern Europe because the process of integration of these countries into the European Union was not a priority for the Union. Plenković was speaking to Croatian reporters covering his attendance at the annual summit of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Together with leaders from Central and Eastern Europe, he participated in panels on diplomatic dialogue on the Western Balkans and on generating growth in Central and…

ZAGREB, January 21, 2020 - The European Union's finance ministers on Tuesday convened in Brussels to discuss digital taxation, the European Green Deal Investment Plan and some other topics, and this is the first meeting of EU finance ministers under the Croatian presidency of the Council. "I am sure that we have prepared ourselves well for this task, this is the peak moment of the job my team has been doing for several months. Of course, we are excited. It is a great honour to preside over the Council of the EU on behalf of Croatia," said Croatian Finance Minister Zdravko…

ZAGREB, January 21, 2020 - A total of HRK 3.1 million could be set aside from the state budget to compensate for campaign-related expenses of the top three of the eleven candidates in the recent presidential election - Zoran Milanović (SDP), Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović (HDZ) and Miroslav Škoro (independent). Milanović can expect 1.2 million kuna for his campaigning in both rounds of the election while Grabar-Kitarović 1.08 million kuna and Škoro could receive a total of 827,000 kuna for his electioneering in the first round of the campaign. If the State Electoral Commission (DIP) does not find anything contentious in their…

ZAGREB, January 21, 2020 - The Croatian Journalists Association (HND) said on Monday that it had walked out of a Culture Ministry task force in charge of drawing up a new law on electronic media because the ministry did not include any of the HND's proposals in the document. The HND says that it had submitted a document with its proposals to the ministry on August 26, 2019 after on July 26 working material for the future law was made available to it. The association says that it wants to remind the public of this fact in light of Culture…

ZAGREB, January 20, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that Croatia would pay special attention at the Zagreb summit scheduled for early May, to unblocking the start of accession negotiations for North Macedonia and Albania. The Croatian prime minister attended a meeting of the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC) in Zagreb. Plenković presented the priorities of Croatia's presidency of the EU and reiterated that the most important tasks facing the Union in the coming months include the next seven-year MFF budget, enlargement, the Conference on the Future of…

ZAGREB, January 20, 2020 - Opening a meeting of the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC) in Zagreb on Monday, Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said that Croatia's presidency of the EU is confirmation of its "strict dedication" to promoting European values. "The chairmanship is confirmation of our strict dedication to participate with other member states in promoting the European project and common values," Jandroković said and added that Croatia is "firmly committed" to European values and principles. "We will advocate a Europe based on common values, equality, respect for mutual interests…