Politics

ZAGREB, 10 May 2022 - Constitutional Court president Miroslav Šeparović said on Tuesday that parliament had still not acted on the court's decision regarding a new abortion law and called for its adoption. The Constitutional Court found on 21 February 2017 that the law from 1978 regulating pregnancy termination is in line with the Constitution, he told N1 television. The court ordered parliament to adopt a new law within two years that would stipulate educational and preventive measures in order to make pregnancy termination an exception, because the valid law is obsolete and was passed in the previous political and social system,…

ZAGREB, 10 May 2022 - The European Commission on Tuesday endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Croatia's payment request for €700 million in grants under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). "I have good news for Croatia: as soon as Member States give their green light, it will receive €700 million in grants under NextGenerationEU. Croatia has made swift progress in implementing the reforms and investments of its national recovery plan," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. Croatia, she added, "has taken important steps to strengthen the labour market and enhance social protection... adopted a national programme for the energy renovation of…

ZAGREB, 10 May 2022 - Only two of the five members in the council monitoring compliance with the code of conduct of state officials adopted by the government are independent experts so it seems that state officials will self-assess whether their conduct is ethical, the GONG civil society oganisation said on Tuesday. The other three members are two state officials in the executive authority and a civil servant from the ruling majority, GONG said, recalling that the code stipulates the principles of protecting the public interest and maintaining citizens' trust as well as the rules of exemplary conduct and rational use of public resources. The government adopted…

May the 10th, 2022 - Some people have been renouncing their Croatian citizenship, and we've had a far better look into precisely who has done that owing to the census taken back in 2021. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, according to the latest census which was conducted last year by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the Republic of Croatia has a resident population of 3,888,529 million people. As for those who renounced Croatian citizenship in 2021, 154 people were released from citizenship, and four more people simply renounced their citizenship. In the first four months of this year, twice as…

ZAGREB, 10 May 2022 - Croatia should be admitted to the Schengen Area swiftly, during the French EU presidency, and any blockade would be shameful, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola has told Hina. Not one member state should block Croatia, she added. I will answer as a politician, I'm tired of talks with countries which have spent years trying to meet the criteria and when they do, there is no political decision. I think it would be shameful if that next step is not taken, she said about Croatia's Schengen entry. Metsola thinks it would be important if that took place during…

ZAGREB, 10 May 2022 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday Croatia would continue to assist Ukraine in various ways and that it was "very difficult to imagine" that the crimes committed in Bucha and Irpin were occurring in Europe in 2022. "Croatia will... continue to provide political, diplomatic, humanitarian, financial and technical assistance to Ukraine in this situation and, naturally, advocate the values we share," he told the press. He said the visit to Kyiv on Sunday was "carefully planned." "Our support as a government, a people, is evident, visible, I think." He and Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman…

ZAGREB, 9 May 2022 - Croatia is the youngest and only EU member state which experienced the kind of aggression Ukraine is experiencing, so it understands best what it is going through, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Monday on the occasion of Europe Day. "We know what's going on, we know how they suffer, we know how proud they are, we know how brave they are and we know they are not allowing their identity to be attacked," he added. EU membership has brought Croatia additional protection, security and opportunities for growth and development, which is why Croatia is practically predestined to encourage enlargement,…

ZAGREB, 9 May 2022 - Thirteen member states, including Croatia, do not support a proposal to change the European Union treaties, which is one of the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe supported by French President Emmanuel Macron and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The 13 states are Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden. They say in a non-paper that although they do not rule out any option at this stage, they do not support rash attempts to initiate changes to the treaties, which they say would carry a…

ZAGREB, 9 May 2022 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Monday extended his best wishes to everyone for Europe Day, saying that we live in a time of great challenges that demand bold decisions and unity. "I wish everyone a happy #EuropeDay! Through #CoFEU we've heard what European citizens are most concerned about," the Croatian prime minister said in the message, referring to the Conference on the Future of Europe, which started a year ago and ended today, on Europe Day. "This is a time of great challenges that demand bold decisions and unity," Plenković wrote on Twitter. The prime…

ZAGREB, 9 May 2022 - Leaders of Karlovac County and the City of Karlovac on Monday laid wreaths at the Jamadol cemetery, with Karlovac Mayor Damir Mandić saying that they commemorate the day for the sake of the victims and not the victors.  The office of the mayor, who is a member of the HDZ party, said that modern-day Croatia was founded on antifascism and the fight against all totalitarian regimes. Mandić said that they were commemorating the millions of victims who in the 20th century paid with their lives during "the rampage of totalitarianism, Fascism, Ustashism and Communism." "Commemorations…