Politics

ZAGREB, 21 Oct 2021 - The external borders of the European Union need to be protected, but without violence and by respecting human rights, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said in the European Parliament on Wednesday. "Violence at our borders is never acceptable. Especially if it is structural and organized. We must protect our EU external borders while upholding fundamental rights. And it’s possible to do both," Johansson said during a plenary debate on violent pushbacks of migrants at the EU external borders. The EU must protect its borders and must protect human rights, she stressed. Earlier this…

October the 22nd, 2021 - Economy Minister Tomislav Coric has attempted to reassure the public that the government is willing to do all it can to deal with the situation around increasing fuel prices. As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, the government is considering additional measures in case of continued increase in fuel prices after 30 days of direct intervention in the market through the adoption of a decree on the matter, and according to the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Tomislav Coric, there will be a slightly fairer distribution of responsibilities to come. According to Tomislav Coric, in the…

ZAGREB, 20 October, 2021 - The reform of local government through functional mergers of municipalities with poor administrative and fiscal capacities is a measure that has been announced for years in different electoral and government programmes, Večernji List newspaper said on Wednesday. The idea is for several smaller municipalities to combine the work they would have difficulty financing by themselves and manage it from a single shared office. But first it should be seen for which municipalities and which types of work this would be cost-effective, the newspaper said. For this purpose, the Ministry of Public Administration signed an agreement…

October the 20th, 2021 - The Croatian State Attorney's Office's indictment against former Agrokor boss Ivica Todoric, as well as fourteen of his former accomplices, remains unconfirmed to this day. As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the indictment of the State Attorney's Office in the Agrokor case against the former owner Ivica Todoric and fourteen other defendants charged with varying forms of abuse of the former company worth hundreds of millions of kuna has not been confirmed yet, and now it has become questionable whether the key evidence is even legal, as reported by Jutarnji list. The High Criminal Court Chamber, chaired…

ZAGREB, 20 October, 2021 - PM Andrej Plenković and the Deputy Chairman of the House of Peoples of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Dragan Čović, agreed at a meeting in Zagreb on Tuesday it was necessary to change BiH's electoral law to ensure legitimate representation and equality of the constituent peoples. They discussed BiH's path to European Union membership, cooperation between Croatia and BiH in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, changes to BiH's electoral legislation and successfully completed projects, such as the recently opened Svilaj bridge and the Gradiška bridge, Plenković's office said in a press release. "The electoral law of Bosnia…

ZAGREB, 20 October, 2021 - Ruling HDZ party whip Branko Bačić said on Tuesday that under the changes to the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Act, the cost of structural renovation would be fully covered by the state and local and regional government units. Bačić also noted that structural renovation would also include properties that were not legalised but were possible to legalise. Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the ruling coalition, Bačić said that they had been informed in detail by Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets Minister Darko Horvat about the proposed amendments to the law on the reconstruction of buildings…

ZAGREB, 19 October, 2021 - Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević said on Tuesday that due to the lack of a composting plant for organic waste the city was forced to sign contracts with private companies providing those services, adding that in the case of the Ce-za-r company, the city acted in line with the law. Following a public tender, a year-long contract for the recovery of organic waste was signed with Ce-za-r, which is part of the CIOS Group, owned by businessman Petar Pripuz, which made the most favourable offer, he said. "I have said on a number of occasions that we will…

ZAGREB, 19 October, 2021 - Deputies of opposition parliamentary parties said on Tuesday that the government's decision to cap the retail prices of fuels was a bad move that affected the supply and demand and consequently could lead to market disruptions, and they called for reducing lowering excise duties on fuels. Stephen Nikola Bartulica of the Homeland Movement party's parliamentary bench criticised the government's measures as being frequently a cause of the problem rather than being a solution. He wondered why other governments in the EU had not resorted to that measure. Last week, the government passed a decree limiting the…

ZAGREB, 19 October, 2021 - At the start of the parliamentary debate on the appointment of nominee Robert Šveb as the new director-general on Tuesday morning, several deputies of Opposition parties reiterated that the procedure of the appointment had been contaminated and that the candidate was in the conflict of interest. Nino Raspudić from MOST said in his ironic comment that the former HRT director-general, Kazimir Bačić, who was released from custody after he was detained in late June on suspicion of corruption and influence peddling, should not worry as Šveb "is worthy of his predecessor". Katarina Peović of the…

ZAGREB, 19 October, 2021 - A former director-general of the HRT public broadcaster, Kazimir Bačić, was released from custody on Monday evening, his lawyers said on Tuesday morning. Bačić was arrested on suspicion of graft and influence peddling in late June, and in mid-July he was relieved of his duties as Director-General of the HRT public broadcasting service by 116 to two votes. USKOK corruption investigators suspect that Bačić, acting on behalf of businessman Milan Lončarić, took €50,000 in a bribe to the late Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić for the Gardens of Light project. As a reward for his role Bačić…