Politics

ZAGREB, 27 August, 2022 - The Croatian Finance Ministry said on Saturday it had actively participated in an investigation into a case involving abuse of trust in doing business and money laundering in gas trading, which resulted in the arrest of several persons on Saturday. Investigators of the USKOK anti-corruption office earlier in the day arrested Damir Škugor, an executive in the INA oil company, and his father. Also arrested were owners of the OMS Upravljanje company, businessman Goran Husić and Josip Šurjak, president of the Croatian Bar Association. Marija Ratkić, management board chair at the Plinara istočne Slavonije gas company, whose supervisory board includes Damir…

August the 28th, 2022 - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic rarely has a good word to say about Croatia, and his recent statement that Croatia is 200 years ahead of Serbia in the economic sense came as quite a surprise, despite it being quite the backhanded compliment. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, on Saturday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic proposed current Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic as his candidate for the composition of the new Serbian Government, announced the postponement of the Pride Parade, and also said that the Republic of Croatia had always been economically more advanced than Serbia, both during the time…

ZAGREB, 26 August, 2022 - War Veterans' Affairs Minister Tomo Medved said on Friday, at a meeting with four pilots of Croatia's Air Force from Operation Storm that the Croatian state, its institutions, and especially the government would use all mechanisms to protect them from accusations from Serbia. Minister Medved and Justice and Public Administration Minister Ivan Malenica held a meeting at the government headquarters with the four pilots of Croatia's Air Force from the 1995 Operation Storm about the war crimes indictments issued against them by Serbia. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Ministry of War Veterans' Affairs, the…

August the 27th, 2022 - Croatian GDP growth has been considerably higher than it has been in the rest of the European Union, despite the ongoing troubles being faced by spiralling inflation and pressure on the government to step in with measures to protect some of the most vulnerable in society. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic recently visited Rijeka where he commented on the news about the 7.7 percent Croatian GDP growth in the second quarter of this year, saying that it represents the second highest growth in the European Union (EU) and is almost double the average…

ZAGREB, 26 August, 2022 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who on Thursday said that Croatian households are paying ten times lower prices of electricity than the market price, explained on Friday that before the war in Ukraine, a megawatt hour of electricity cost €57, only to now rise to nearly €600 on the market. This means that the price of electricity supplies bought on the market by the state-run HEP power provider is tenfold higher than last year, while households are still paying the electricity bills as if electricity prices had not gone up, and this exemption of households from paying the market…

ZAGREB, 25 August, 2022 - Minister of Public Administration and Justice Ivan Malenica said on Thursday, ahead of a meeting with the pilots accused by Serbia of airstrikes against civilians after Operation Storm, that Croatia will provide them with full legal support and prevent the issuance of an international arrest warrant. Malenica said that he would meet with the four accused pilots on Friday to discuss further activities regarding the proceedings initiated by Belgrade. He said the pilots should not worry because Croatia would give them full legal support.  "We will also work on preventing the issuance of an international arrest warrant if Serbia…

ZAGREB, 25 Aug (Hina) - Deputy Prime Minister Anja Šimpraga said on Thursday, at a commemoration for the civilians killed during and in the aftermath of the 1995 Operation Storm in the village of Plavno and the hamlet of Grubori near Knin, that prosecution of war crimes was a test of maturity for Croatia. More than 30 civilians were killed during, and in the aftermath of Operation Storm in the hamlets of Plavno, including infirm and elderly people, Šimpraga said, noting that the injustice and evil done to local Croats in the early 1990s cannot and must not be used as…

ZAGREB, 25 August, 2022 - A conference on Serbia-Croatia relations was held in Golubić near Obrovac for the 15th consecutive year on Thursday, and the Declaration on the Cooperation of Serbs from Croatia and Croats from Serbia was initialed at the event. The declaration was signed by Milorad Pupovac (SDSS) and Tomislav Žigmanov (Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina - DSHV), and the document will be confirmed by the bodies of both communities. Since the countries are burdened by other relations, we considered it necessary to underscore our need to cooperate and to call on our countries to start cooperating…

ZAGREB, 24 Aug (Hina) - Finance Minister Marko Primorac said on Wednesday that there was no "poll tax" on guest workers and that the Tax Administration's actions were in line with the principle of worldwide income taxation and the exchange of information between EU member states in general. "The Tax Administration will not put its hand in anyone's pocket, but there are certain mechanisms that are continuously implemented, and this should be observed that way, and our citizens can relax," said Primorac, responding to reporters after a meeting of the national council for the introduction of the euro currency. He added that the…

ZAGREB, 24 August, 2022 - The Island Movement has said that the Ministry of Transport, Sea and Infrastructure is deluding the public by claiming that the association is misinterpreting the latest draft bill on the maritime domain and seaports, which, it says, evidently brings into question the public use of the maritime domain. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the association wondered how it was possible that work on amending the Maritime Domain and Seaports Act had been going on for the past 20 years, yet the draft bill released on 19 July allowed for allegedly different interpretations of restrictions on…