Politics

ZAGREB, December 8, 2019 - The Documenta Centre for Dealing with the Past and the Serb National Council (SNV) held a commemoration for Marija, Aleksandra and Mihajlo Zec who had been killed on Mount Medvednica, overlooking Zagreb, 28 years ago on Saturday, saying that they would ask the city authorities to name a Zagreb square or street after 12-year-old Aleksandra. They said they would also ask the city authorities to put up a memorial plaque on the Adolfovac mountain lodge where Aleksandra and her mother Marija were shot dead by members of a special police unit under Tomislav Merčep. Members…

ZAGREB, December 6, 2019 - Croatian War Veterans Affairs' Minister Tomo Medved said on Friday that a campaign with posters displaying the names of three presidential candidates and their slogans written in Cyrillic, launched by the Serb National Council (SNV), was unnecessary and did not contribute to a better understanding between Croats and Serbs. "In my mind, this is unnecessary. I cannot see any concrete form of contribution (to a better understanding)," Medved said adding that he would refrain from any further comment given that this was launched in the build-up to the presidential election. Several jumbo posters with the…

ZAGREB, December 6, 2019 - Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatović on Friday criticised the treatment by Croatian police of illegal migrants coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina and called on Bosnian authorities to treat migrants more responsibly and to urgently close down the Vučjak camp outside the northwestern town of Bihać. Mijatović has been in Bosnia and Herzegovina this week to see for herself the scale of the problem of illegal migration, visiting all refugee camps in the country. Addressing an end-of-visit press conference in Sarajevo on Friday, she explicitly condemned the conduct of Croatian border police as…

ZAGREB, December 6, 2019 - The government will today approve projects worth 3.68 billion kuna for the development of Krapina-Zagorje County, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said at the start of a cabinet meeting in Krapina on Friday. The government convened in the northern town on the occasion of Town Day, observed on Saint Nicholas' Day, December 6. Addressing the Town Council, Plenković said that the amended law on financing local and regional government had ensured higher revenues for Krapina-Zagorje County and most towns and municipalities in the county. "I think this was an important step forward because in that way…

Did the Croatia police (MUP) really abduct two Nigerian students who were legally at a sports competition in Croatia, on a tram just steps away from their hostel in the middle of Zagreb, and banish them to Bosnia? Kenneth Chinedu Eboh and Uchenna Alexandro Abia, two Nigerian students who came to Pula to compete in table tennis, claim that that is exactly what happened, while MUP claims in a statement that they had checked out of their hostel, the name of which has now been revealed. They allegedly departed the HI Youth Hostel in Zagreb with their passports on November…

ZAGREB, December 6, 2019 - The Croatian Parliament will emphasise through its activities the priorities of the Croatian presidency of the European Union and special emphasis will be placed on the membership prospects of Western Balkan countries that wish to join the EU, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said on Thursday. Jandroković was attending a conference of European Parliament presidents in Zagreb, which also involved European Parliament President David Sassoli and the chairs of political groups in the European Parliament. "What is important to us is to emphasise through the parliamentary dimension the priorities of the Croatian presidency - a Europe…

ZAGREB, December 6, 2019 - Ksenija Turković, a Croatian judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), said on Thursday that by the end of 2018 the ECHR had passed 22 verdicts for breaches of the right to an effective investigation against Croatia, which accounts for around 5% of all ECHR verdicts related to Croatia. Turković was speaking at a conference of the Croatian Association for Criminal Sciences and Practice. Breaches of articles of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the effectiveness of investigations are among the more frequent cases from Croatia…

ZAGREB, December 5, 2019 - During its European Union presidency in the first half of next year Croatia will need to reconcile different interests regarding the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), notably the differences in the views of the European Parliament and the countries that contribute the most to the EU budget, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said after meeting with European Parliament President David Sassoli in Zagreb on Thursday. Plenković and Sassoli held a joint press conference after a meeting between the Croatian government and the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament. "At this moment there is indeed a great…

ZAGREB, December 5, 2019 - Fifteen hooligans, who on 21 August raided a Serb-owned cafe in the village of Uzdolje, beating up some of the guests, including a child, as they were watching a TV broadcast of a football match between Red Star Belgrade and the Swiss side Young Boys, and damaging the interior of the bar, were charged with committing a hate crime in that village near Knin. The municipal office of the Chief State Prosecutor (DORH) in Šibenik on Wednesday issued an indictment for the Uzdolje incident which reads that the defendants, who were masked and carried wooden…

ZAGREB, December 5, 2019 - Croatia considers NATO and the European Union main partners in projection of peace and also believes that the bonds between the USA and the European Union are inextricable and inseparable, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in London on Wednesday after a two-day summit meeting of NATO which observed its 70th anniversary. "The cooperation between the USA and Europe as regards security is firm and inextricable," he added. This is the message given today by all heads of state or government and they have underscored that the development of strategical autonomy at the EU level,…