Politics

October 9, 2019 - As Estonia leads the digital revolution in Europe, Serbia announces tax breaks to entice digital nomads. Meanwhile in Croatia...  There are so many things I love about living in Croatia - the people, the nature, the climate, the food, the wine, the safety, the cheap pints.  And the total absurdity. I genuinely couldn't live anywhere else.  Here we are, fairly well into the 21st century in the rest of Europe, or at least most countries are.  Somewhere up there in northern Europe, a tiny former Soviet republic with no obvious natural resources to turn it…

ZAGREB, October 9, 2019 - There are 438,000 people in Croatia with war veterans' status, War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved said at a round table debate on veterans' pensions, saying that defenders were a foundation of society and not a burden and that they did not pose a threat to the pension system. Medved said the round table would focus on the existing legal framework regulating pensions granted under special regulations, including veterans' pensions. "We will pay special attention to the structure of the war veteran population, the number of pension beneficiaries, their age and their years of service," he…

As the majority of you will know, I've been writing articles to try to keep you up to date with Brexit and the unfolding situation over in the United Kingdom. Numerous articles have been written to update, inform and attempt to answer your questions on what Brexit with or without a deal means for you as a British citizen with legal residence in Croatia.  The first article, which can be read here, covers what would happen if Theresa May's deal (withdrawal agreement) is adopted by British Parliament. The others cover the situation as it unfolded. As individual EU member states came…

ZAGREB, October 9, 2019 - Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović said on Tuesday there was understanding among EU member states that a comprehensive approach was needed for all three migrant routes - eastern, central and western Mediterranean. EU interior ministers met in Luxembourg today to discuss migration and a temporary mechanism for rescuing migrants at sea, on the central Mediterranean route, that was agreed by Germany, France, Italy and Malta on September 23. The agreement does not envisage quotas and member states would take in migrants rescued at sea on a voluntary basis. EU president Finland would like the mechanism…

ZAGREB, October 9, 2019 - EU Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said on Tuesday he would do his utmost so that by the end of this month Croatia was given the assessment that it was ready to join the Schengen Area because it deserved it. Asked by reporters in Luxembourg if the Commission would confirm at its meeting next week that Croatia was ready for Schengen, he said he was doing his best to have that assessment by the end of this Commission's term because Croatia deserved it and because he had vowed it at his hearing five years ago.…

ZAGREB, October 8, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Tuesday again expressed satisfaction that the Croatian candidate for a European Commission Vice President, Dubravka Šuica, had successfully passed a hearing before the relevant committees of the European Parliament, expressing confidence that she would also contribute to improving the status of persons with disabilities. "Ms Šuica, who has always advocated the rights of vulnerable groups, will... make it possible for what is done at EU level to be of help at the national level," Plenković said in response to a question from members of the public visiting the parliament which…

October 8, 2019 - While there is some speculation that Zagreb's mayor will enter the race for Croatia's presidency, one Milan Bandic has already joined the race.  Full disclosure - my record of interviewing winners in Croatian presidential campaigns is poor, as Ivo Josipovic will testify to when I interviewed him for a Canadian news portal back in 2014.  But have I backed a winner this time?  Milan Bandic has run for President before, coming second to Josipovic in 2010. And while the Zagreb Mayor mulls another run, lo and behold, but ANOTHER Milan Bandic has entered the race.  Known…

ZAGREB, October 8, 2019 - The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has established certain weaknesses in the calculation of cohesion policy allocations which Croatia can use as an argument in the debate on the multiannual financial framework, ECA member Ivana Maletić said on Monday. Under the European Commission's proposal, Croatia should receive in the 2021-27 multiannual financial framework about 6% less funds as part of the cohesion policy than in the current one. Although Croatia is in the group of countries with Bulgaria and Romania, whose GDP is below 60% of the EU average, the other two countries should receive…

ZAGREB, October 8, 2019 - The Dubrovnik Piano Trio on Monday held a concert in Belgrade's Church of St. Anthony of Padua to mark Croatia's Independence Day, and the event was also attended by Croatian Embassy staff headed by Ambassador Gordan Bakota and Zagreb City Assembly chair Drago Prgomet. Bakota said the event provided an opportunity to recall Croatia's path from a country fighting for its independence to a country that was a member of all international organisations and would soon be chairing the EU. Warning against both national and social populism, Prgomet called for building a state that would…

ZAGREB, October 8, 2019 - High state delegations on Tuesday laid wreaths at Zagreb's central cemetery of Mirogoj on the occasion of Independence Day, October 8. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković, and the envoy for President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Anamarija Kirinić, laid wreaths in front of the central cross in the Alley of Fallen Croatian Defenders, at the grave of Croatia's first president Franjo Tuđman and at the common grave of unidentified victims of the 1991-95 Homeland War. After the wreath-laying ceremony, President Grabar-Kitarović, PM Plenković and Parliament Speaker Jandroković attended mass for the Homeland in St. Mark's…