Politics

ZAGREB, October 27, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović received the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony in Washington on Saturday and on that occasion she said she was honoured by this award which she dedicated to her family and her country. In late August, the Fulbright non-profit association stated that it would award the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award to the Croatian president for her global contributions as a leader, diplomat and public servant. "With this award, the Fulbright Association honours President Grabar-Kitarović for her remarkable contributions as a leader, diplomat and public servant," Fulbright said in a press release…

ZAGREB, October 27, 2019 - Most of the people who have emigrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have moved to Croatia, the government of the Federation, the Bosniak-Croat entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said in a report. According to the report, at least two million people originating from BiH live abroad, which is 56.5 percent of the country's estimated population of 3.53 million. Figures for 2017 show that 394,146 people from Bosnia and Herzegovina live in Croatia, 333,687 live in Serbia, and 200,510 in Germany. The countries that follow are Austria, the United States, Slovenia, Switzerland, Sweden and Canada. The…

ZAGREB, October 27, 2019 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović said on Saturday that Croatia's admission to the Schengen Area should be one of the priorities for Slovenia and the European Union, and that those who did not think that Croatia was prepared for the Schengen passport-free area "make not only highly politicised comments but also show their ignorance." In the Slovenian political scene, too, there are those who say that Croatia's entry into the Schengen Area is also in the strategic interest of Slovenia, Božinović said in an interview with the Croatian Radio on Saturday morning. "Being exposed to the…

As Novac/Marina Klepo writes on the 26th of October, 2019, in Croatia last year, the guaranteed minimum benefit (which is just a less understood name for social assistance) was received by 1.7 percent of the total population, the lowest share in the last 20 years and probably the lowest share of the population covered by this benefit in the EU. The reason for the fall in the number and share of social assistance recipients is undoubtedly the large amount of emigration and indeed a certain degree of economic recovery in recent years. However, the figures on the share of recipients…

ZAGREB, October 26, 2019 - Addressing a meeting of his party's main committee in Zagreb on Saturday, Social Democrat (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić said that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković was an obstacle for Croatia's admission to the Schengen passport-free area, and added that this opposition party would start forming a large anti-corruption alliance. "A detailed, complex and comprehensive report made by the European Commission on a state of affairs in Croatia reads that a crucial condition for Croatia's entry into the Schengen Area is the fight for the widespread corruption in our country," Bernardić said adding that a half of…

ZAGREB, October 26, 2019 - An international conference on globalisation of migrations and xenophobia in the European Union took place in Split on Saturday and on that occasion "Demos Migrant Portal", a database on migrations and demography in three languages – Croatian, German and English – was presented. The conference, which brought together researchers from Croatia and abroad, was organised by the Zagreb-based Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Split. Researcher Anđelko Milardović of the Zagreb institute said that in the event that European Union criticised too much…

ZAGREB, October 26, 2019 - Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Friday he expected Slovenia to make a "wise decision" and support Croatia's Schengen entry which, he added, was also in the interest of Slovenia's authorities because it meant the EU's external border would move and become Croatia's responsibility. "Slovenia will certainly act wisely and intelligently," he told reporters in Split in the wake of messages from Slovenia after the European Commission assessed that Croatia met the technical conditions to join the Schengen area of free travel. He said Croatia met a score of difficult conditions to deserve that…

ZAGREB, October 26, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Friday the EU's external border should be protected at the farthest location, and pushed for reaching an agreement with Turkey on illegal migration. "We believe the EU's external border should be protected at the farthest location on the migration route we call eastern Mediterranean or western Balkan. That envisages protecting the Greek... and the Bulgarian border. Those borders are the initial entry point for illegal migrants," Plenković told reporters, adding that smugglers then brought them all the way to north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina, close to the Croatian border. He…

ZAGREB, October 25, 2019 - Croatia has six weeks to come up with a concrete plan on how to increase its defence budget to 2% of GDP by 2024, Defence Minister Damir Krstičević said on Friday in Brussels. "NATO considers that Croatia has to invest more in equipment and the modernisation of its army. The heads of state of NATO member states are set to meet in London in six weeks' time and NATO considers that Croatia has to come with a concrete plan on how to achieve a defence budget of two percent," said Krstičević who attended a meeting of…

ZAGREB, October 25, 2019 - School unions on Friday said that they would not meet with presidential candidates to discuss the situation in the education system and announced that schools in Primorje-Gorski Kotar, Međimurje and Sisak-Moslavina counties would be on strike on Monday. Croatian Teachers' Union (SHU) Secretary-General Ana Tuškan told a press conference that they do not wish to be associated with any political party or presidential hopeful. She made this statement after the leader of the Independent Union of Secondary School Teachers, Branimir Mihalinec, on Thursday called on presidential candidates Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and Miroslav Škoro to clearly state…