Politics

ZAGREB, June 21, 2019 - The Commission on Conflict of Interest Prevention said on Friday it had no authority to decide on the exemption of the Commission Chair Nataša Novakovic in the case of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, adding that this should be decided by the authorities that supervise the Commission's work, and if they declare that they have no jurisdiction, the matter should be decided by the Constitutional Court. The Commission said that the only provision relevant to the exemption of the Commission Chair is Article 24 (5) of the General Administrative Procedure Act which stipulates that if there…

ZAGREB, June 21, 2019 (Hina) - Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Davor Bernardić said in Brussels that the rule of the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Union should be put to an end. "Our common conclusion is that the EPP has been leading the European Union for too long without any visible results," Bernardić told reporters after a meeting of the leaders of Social Democratic parties from the EU member states, who traditionally gather before each EU summit. He said that the European Social Democrats were fighting for a more socially just Europe, higher wages and pensions, greater…

ZAGREB, June 21, 2019 - The U.S. State Department has issued a report on human trafficking in 2019 which says that Croatia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The latest "Trafficking in Persons Report", however, praises the Croatian government for demonstrating "overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore, Croatia remained on Tier 2." The countries are grouped in three tiers. As for the Croatian efforts to counter human trafficking the report reads that they "included investigating, prosecuting, and convicting more traffickers and identifying…

ZAGREB, June 21, 2019 - Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on early Friday morning that a four-hour-long discussion on the hopefuls for the European Commission's president revolved around the three known candidates and that no new candidates had been mentioned. Leaders of the EU member-states ended the discussion on the distribution of EU top jobs inconclusively and therefore an extraordinary summit meeting is scheduled for 30 June. "During the four-hour-long dinner the necessary majority was not secured for the support for any of the three candidates, nominated by the European People's Party (EPP), the Socialists and the Liberals" Plenković…

ZAGREB, June 21, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović announced on her Facebook page on Thursday that she would not decide on running for a second term in office before Homeland Thanksgiving Day on August 5. She thanked all the people for supporting her to run for a second term, "especially the party whose candidate I was five years ago." Grabar-Kitarović said that she wanted to attend the Homeland Thanksgiving Day ceremony in Knin as President and not as a presidential candidate, "to leave this special day for Croatia out of the context of a political campaign." Prime Minister Andrej Plenković…

ZAGREB, June 20, 2019 - European Socialists and Liberals are strongly opposed to German Christian Democrat Manfred Weber's bid for European Commission President, but they agree that this post is filled by the candidate of the European People's Party (EPP), which is now seeking new candidates and among these undeclared candidates are two senior Croatian officials, President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, the Belgian daily Le Soir said on Thursday. Citing unnamed sources, Le Soir says that the EPP is looking for a new candidate who could receive wider support. It says that Michel Barnier, the EU's chief…

ZAGREB, June 20, 2019 - Croatian MEP Biljana Borzan (SDP) has been selected as one of the nine vice-chairs of the European Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament. "I thank my colleagues and the new chair of the group Iratxe Garcia Perez for their support," Borzan said. The other vice-chairs of the S&D group include Eric Andrieu (France), Miriam Dalli (Malta), Helene Fritzon (Sweden), Roberto Gualtieri (Italy), Bernd Lange (Germany), Claude Moraes (Great Britain), Kati Piri (the Netherlands) and Rovana Plumb (Romania). "As I have until now, I will fight for Croatia to have a strong role…

ZAGREB, June 20, 2019 - The Jewish Community of Zagreb (ŽOZ) has called for an annulment of the "shameful" decision by the Zagreb City Assembly to erect a monument to Holocaust victims in Zagreb because it believes that its purpose is to conceal the truth about the killings of Jews in WWII Croatia. ŽOZ said in a statement that the aim is to downplay the significance and gravity of crimes committed against tens of thousands of Jews based on racial laws in the Ustasha-ruled Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in 1941-1945 by insisting on the theme that covers six million…

ZAGREB, June 19, 2019 - Croatian Defence Minister Damir Krstičević met with his Italian counterpart Elisabetta Trenta in Rome on Wednesday during the first official visit of a Croatian defence minister to Italy after 15 years, the Defence Ministry said in a press release. Krstičević and Trenta expressed their satisfaction with increasing cooperation, which is mostly evident in traditional cooperation between the two countries' navies. Croatian and Italian naval forces are currently participating in the international military exercise Adrion 2019 Livex. In order to further strengthen the bilateral defence cooperation, the two ministers announced that a new defence cooperation agreement…

ZAGREB, June 19, 2019 - The Reformists are breaking off their cooperation with the ruling coalition to support Zoran Milanović as the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for president, their leader Radimir Čačić announced on Wednesday. Speaking in an interview with the N1 television station, Čačić said that he was no longer communicating with the ruling majority and that the party would definitely support Milanovic's presidency bid. Cacic believes that Milanovic's chances of winning the election would be greater if Miroslav Škoro stood a candidate as he would attract the votes of "the clerical, hard-line right" which would…