Politics

28 March 2022 - The Human Rights House Zagreb, in collaboration with the Embassy of the United Kingdom and lawyers Vesna Alaburić and Vanja Jurić, has developed a curriculum for lawyers and other legal experts on freedom of expression and freedom of the media. The curriculum will serve as a basis for training on freedom of expression and freedom of the media and will help strike a balance in the conflict between the right to freedom of expression and the right to protection of reputation and other personality rights. "This curriculum is aimed at strengthening the capacity of lawyers and…

28 March 2022 - The European Commission on Monday approved Croatia's €7.5 million state aid scheme for the maritime sector, transport and transport infrastructure affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The state aid will be used to cover fixed costs incurred from March 2020 to June 2020. Enterprises that suffered at least a 30 percent decline in their revenue in this period compared to the corresponding period in 2019 are eligible to this aid. The maximum amount of aid is HRK 12 million, and the aid should be approved by no later than 30 June 2022. The temporary framework for state aid…

March the 28th, 2022 - Remember that old saying about the only two certain things in life being death and taxes? Croatian residents and property owners providing free accommodation to Ukraine refugees escaping war following the Russian invasion of their country must still pay tax despite their good (and free) deed. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian residents who own property and who are receiving Ukraine refugees in their apartments and houses will still have to pay taxes despite making their offer free. The fact is that private landlords in Croatia must sign a lease agreement with Ukrainian refugees who they want…

ZAGREB, 27 March 2022 - Bosniak SDA party leader Bakir Izetbegović said in a letter to EU and Croatian leaders on Sunday he was ready to continue talks on changes to Bosnia's election law, but stressed that he would not accept solutions leading to further ethnic divisions, singling out the HDZ BiH as an advocate of such ideas. In a letter to EU leaders whose content was reported to local media by Bosnia and Herzegovina's ruling Bosniak party, Izetbegović said that "the HDZ's tough positions, excessive insistence on the principle of ethnicity and refusal to seriously discuss defining the powers of the House of Peoples of the…

ZAGREB, 27 March 2022 - The president of the association "Social Democrats", MP Davorko Vidović, said on Sunday that the association's mission was to bring together people sharing the values of social democracy, which, he said, were threatened more than one believed could be possible in the 21st century. Presenting the association in Osijek, Vidović said that social democracy and its values of freedom, solidarity, equality and social equity were nowadays possibly more threatened than they had been 150 years ago. "Not as brutally and as openly as before but they are threatened in a new, specific way, which is one…

ZAGREB, 27 March 2022 - Dario Hrebak, leader of the HSLS, a junior partner in the ruling coalition, said after intraparty consultations on Sunday that the HSLS proposed a government reshuffle so that the government could focus on key problems to secure economic and overall stability as well as euro and Schengen area entry. "With regards to the current political situation, the HSLS believes that at the moment Croatia needs stability in light of the global trends, lack of security, war, pandemic, refugee crisis and the related consequences such as inflation pressures, problems in supply chains and changes in energy policies and relations,"…

ZAGREB, 27 March 2022 - A total of 10,409 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Croatia so far, of whom 2,136 in the last seven days, the Ministry of the Interior has said on the Croatia for Ukraine website. Of the 10,409 refugees, 5,064 are women, 3,996 children and 1,349 men. Since 25 February the Civil Protection Directorate has mobilised 36 facilities to accommodate the refugees, three reception centres and 33 facilities for collective accommodation, one catering company and one transport company. Currently 29 persons are staying in privately-owned properties, 1,338 have been provided with collective accommodation and 9,042 have been provided…

March 27, 2022 - Several sources from the ruling coalition claim that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has broken through and that a wider Croatian Government reshuffle will take place around May 30. This began to be seriously considered after the arrest of Minister of Construction Darko Horvat, and especially after Uskok opened investigations against two other members of the Government: Minister of Labor and Pensions Josip Aladrović, who is suspected of favoring the employment of two people in 2018 and 2019 while being director of the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute, and Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milošević, who is suspected of mediating in "arranging" incentives for selected…

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - Croatian Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Ivan Sabolić on Friday denied allegations by some local media outlets about Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković having lobbied during the European Council's meeting for the deferment of Bosnia's general elections. The allegations that Plenković advocated the postponement of the elections, which are expected to be held in October, and that the European Council dismissed that possibility were first presented by the Klix news portal, and after that some other local media outlets disseminated them. Bosnian presidency member Željko Komšić immediately joined the comments that this failed attempt by Croatia's officials to defer the polls…

March the 26th, 2022 - When it comes to the current crisis facing Ukraine following neighbouring Russia's invasion last month, many believe that the complicated processed involving formalities for Croatian Ukraine refugee integration must now be scrapped. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, the unprecedented influx of refugees from Ukraine presents a current very real challenge across the EU and non-EU Europe, as although Ukrainians are interested in getting involved quickly in normal life in their new countries, including gaining legal employment, potential employers offering them jobs has been plagued with complicated red tape. Successful Croatian Ukraine refugee integration relies on…