ZAGREB, 31 May 2022 - President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday that the European sanctions against Russia "are not working" since Moscow could sell oil to others.

During its summit meeting in Brussels on Monday, the European Union agreed on a new set of sanctions whereby seaborne oil imports from Russia would be immediately banned. Two-thirds of the Russian oil imported by the EU comes via tanker and one-third by the Druzhba pipeline. The embargo on seaborne oil imports would therefore apply to two-thirds of all oil imported from Russia.

Milanović said in his ironical comment that Russian President Vladimir Putin could now have a self-complacent smile on his face, and gas and oil supplies could be redirected from Russia to other destinations "where there is a high demand for them".

Milanović went on to say that European citizens will pay a high price for the sanctions that are not working.

"Perhaps one day, they will start producing some effect. Currently, neither has the rouble depreciated nor is Russia feeling the financial effects (of the sanctions). Once it starts feeling them, the war will be already over."

Milanović, therefore, thinks that Europe should introduce "an all-out energy embargo" against Russia. He wonders why no embargo has been put on the gas imports from Russia.

As part of the agreement to ban the import of Russian oil delivered by ships, Hungary will be able to procure oil via Croatia in case of problems with the Druzhba pipeline.

Milanović finds this to be good for Hungary, while Croatia is "irrelevant" in this case and it can only earn a pittance in this arrangement.

"I would like to see Croatia playing a crucial role. However, Croatia is not a key player. Croatia is no player, at all," said Milanović, calling for being engaged in a tug of war in trade.

He again claimed that Croatia "is not fighting for its interests".

Even if it recognizes its interests, Croatia fails to advertise them. We are afraid of demanding anything. We are ashamed of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while we have understanding for the Turks," said Milanović in reference to his view on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the problems surrounding the current electoral law in that country.

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ZAGREB, 24 May 2022 - Croatian President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday that indicting four high-ranking Croatian Army officers for alleged war crimes will cost Serbia, calling out politicians in that country for "unintelligent behaviour" with which Serbia will never succeed in joining the European Union.

Serbia's War Crimes Prosecutor's Office indicted four high-ranking Croatian Army officers for alleged war crimes. They are accused of shelling a refugee column during the military Operation Storm on 7 and 8 August 1995.

"These indictments have occurred despite our years-long attempts to convince them not to play with fire and that it will cost them. I cannot be more polite, I hope they are listening to me. Leave that alone. Otherwise, they should not be surprised by reactions by right-wing lawmakers in the Sabor. The problem is that the majority of people in Croatia think like that," Milanović told reporters.

Asked by N1 television if he was afraid of being indicted for his speech in Glina in 1995 as a possible response to Serbia indicting four Croatian generals, Serbia's President Aleksandar vučić said "the Serbs didn't kill Croatians, it was the Croatians who killed Serbs."

Milanović called on Vučić "not to do that." "I can keep things rhetorically under control to a certain measure. But then this comes from Belgrade and how then can I explain that we pursue a well-intentioned policy?"

Milanović said that these moves by Serbia were "unintelligent behaviour" by a state that is "impoverished and degraded," and that does not have its status resolved anywhere.

"They don't want to join NATO, OK. They will never join the European Union this way. Who needs this? Who is pursuing this policy? Which citizens there is the prosecutor's office addressing?" Milanović said.

He went on to say that he is convinced that 75% of citizens would support his and the Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's common stance about Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that just as many people in Croatia believe that "Croatian prosecutorial authorities should indict Vučić."

Milanović however said that that should not be done because Vučić is "being tactical." "And then we hear that nobody killed anyone, but instead the Croatians killed Serbs," he added.

"I am sorry for every Serb who was killed. They need not have been. But a huge majority of Serbs fled straight away. That is a fact. Even the tribunal in The Hague confirmed that," said Milanović.

"Serb brethren, come to your senses," Milanović said, adding that he would probably now be proclaimed an "Ustasha." "Last week I was a Serb."

"We have to be clear and just in our relations with Serbia, articulate what we expect of them," he added

Last week the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts called on Serbia to stop inciting animosity against Croatia and prosecuting Croatian citizens, to renounce Greater Serbia propaganda and respect its obligations in line with agreements, such as protecting the reciprocal rights of the Croat minority and ensuring for Croats free political and cultural organising, as Croatia ensures for the Serb minority.

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ZAGREB, 24 May 2022 - President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday there was a risk of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina deteriorating and that his intention is to prevent that and help find "a framework for coexistence of the three constituent peoples in BiH", however, he ruled out the possibility of an armed conflict.

"Anyone starting talk of a war erupting in BiH should get their mouth taped," said Milanović adding that speculations like that amount to war-mongering propaganda.

"Who will attack whom in BiH? Perhaps, Serbs with their three armored vehicles?," Milanović wondered in an ironic comment, insisting that not enough weapons existed for anyone to spark an armed conflict.

He announced a phone call to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg for Tuesday afternoon so as to inform him of what is going on in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Last week, the Croatian president sent a letter about this issue to Stoltenberg.

Milanović said that "when it comes to knowing about the developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, international leaders are not updated," accusing Croatia's diplomats of that.

Milanović accused Prime Minister Andrej Plenković of boycotting his proposal to hold a session of the National Security Council to discuss the state of affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He also criticized Plenković over a lack of a joint position on the issue, and again ruled out that "there was anything personal in that conflict."

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ZAGREB, 20 May 2022 - President Zoran Milanović, who on Friday attended ceremonies celebrating the Day of the City of Zabok, said Croatia should now draw up a final balance on its 10-year-long EU membership and see what benefits it has had.

"Now is the right time after our first ten years of the EU membership, marked by our hopes, expectations, anticipations, premonitions, joys, and frustrations, to draw up a final balance sheet and see what has been good and what is not good for us."

As for the absorption of EU funds, Milanović said that Croatia was still at the bottom.

The president called for permanent attentiveness in defining and identifying Croatia's interests.

I say this in order to introduce "creative restlessness" necessary for progress, said Milanović.

"This is not the time for revolutions and big decisions. This is the time for us to exercise permanent attentiveness in defining and identifying our interests," said Milanović.

In the coming period and in the years to come, Croatian politicians should observe what is going on around us, what our interests are and how much progress we make, and whether we are coming closer to the most prosperous countries in the European Union, said Milanović.

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ZAGREB, 20 May 2022 - President and Supreme Commander of the Croatian Armed Forces Zoran Milanović said on Friday on the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the establishment of the Special Forces that members of these units are the elite and their reputation has to be spotless.

"We need to remember that of the 75 of your friends, combatants, Croatian knights, who were killed, thirty of them were born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and half of the remaining 45 probably had their roots in BiH," Milanović said.

"That was a time when Croatia was defended by sons from small communities and towns and the least of them came from downtown Zagreb and other large cities," he claimed. "We must not forget them. We must not forget their children and descendants. They are a part of us in another country and we must not betray them." 

We are not in alliances for them but for us

Milanović said that excellent skills can best be gained in cooperation and interaction with others. "Small nations and small armies cannot advance if they aren't in constant contact with what is on the outside, with what is different and open. That is the fate and imperative of small nations because a small nation that is closed within itself degenerates," he added.

"We aren't in all those alliances for their sake but our own," the president stressed.

National policy and security are an important priority and they are defined by the democratically elected government, concluded Milanović.

The president laid a wreath and lit a candle at a cross in front of a memorial room in the barracks in Delnice in honour of the members of the Special Forces who were killed. Tribute to the fallen soldiers was also paid by Brigadier General Perica Turalija on behalf of the Defence Ministry and Hungary's military attache to Croatia.

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ZAGREB, 16 May 2022 - President Zoran Milanović said on Monday that the Constitutional Court's ruling on the Bridge party's two referendum questions was "trampling on the Constitution and an act of a coup d'etat!".

Earlier on Monday, the Constitutional Court concluded that the questions in the two referendum petitions launched by the opposition Bridge party - to abolish mandatory COVID passes and transfer the powers of the national COVID response team to Parliament - failed the test of constitutionality. 

"What these ten judges did today is a coup d'etat. That court needs to be abolished by a referendum so they can see what the will of the people means when 400,000 people consciously sign a petition. They dared check the mental state and sobriety of 400,000 Croatian citizens who clearly called for amendments to the Constitution," President Milanović said in the town Petrinja.

Milanović recalled that former President Ivo Josipović gathered constitutional experts in 2015 to recommend changes to the Constitution and that one of them was that the notion of epidemic should be entered into the Constitution.

The current president added that today that issue is no longer relevant because the epidemic has passed.

"The Constitutional Court does not have the right to question the constitutionality of the question to amend the Constitution if conditions stipulated by Articles 86 and 87, paragraph 3 are met regarding the number of signatures. That has been met! The Constitutional Court needs to be informed of that. Anyone who requests the opinion is violating the Constitution and that is the parliament belonging to the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) ," said Milanović.

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ZAGREB, 16 May 2022 - The leaders of three Croat parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Monday supported President Zoran Milanović's policy considering the issues burdening Croats in that country, including his idea to block Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO unless the election law in BiH is amended.

Earlier on Monday Milanović called on representatives of Croats in BiH to clearly state if they agree with his policy so that he can continue pursuing it.

"I support President Milanović's policy and call on institutions in Croatia to help in finding a solution to the Croat issue in BiH and to take all the necessary steps, regardless of how difficult they may be," the leader of the HDZ 1990, Ilija Cvitanović told the Bild.ba web news portal.

He added that this was a 'historic moment' for Croats in BiH and that it has to be utilized.

The leader of HSS BiH, Mario Karamatić posted on Facebook that he can see "the point, interest and advantage' in what Milanović is doing and asked that he continued doing so.

"Mr. President, please do not give up from us too, like many others who have done so for whatever reason," Karamatić wrote.

Leader of the Republican Party Slaven Raguž said that "over the past 15 days, Zoran Milanović has done more to internationalize the Croat issue in BiH than HDZ has in the past 20 years."

Milanović has been repeating for days that Croatia should block Finland and Sweden's accession to the alliance until the election law in BiH is amended in an attempt to prevent the more numerous Bosniaks to outvote Croats in that country at the October election.

However, Croatia's Prime Minister and leader of the HDZ, Andrej Plenković, has accused Milanović's rhetoric saying that it has damaged attempts for an agreement to be reached over the election reform.

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25 April 2022 - Croatian President Zoran Milanović on Monday sent a letter to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, congratulating him on his re-election and noting that Croatia and France are "friends and allies."

In the second round of presidential elections on Sunday, Macron defeated his rival Marine Le Pen.

"I am confident that in your new term in office you will continue to work for the overall progress of your country and the wellbeing of all its citizens," Milanović wrote in the letter.

"Croatia and France are friends and allies and our countries share a number of interests and cooperate successfully both bilaterally and within the EU, NATO and other international organisations," the Croatian president added.

ZAGREB, 21 April 2022 - President Zoran Milanović said on Thursday he was honored to be boycotted by such people as cabinet ministers after Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said his cabinet would sever all communication with the president for the rest of his term, except in writing, due to a stream of invective from him.

"Unfortunately, it so happened that I had to call them a gang, which they are because they have been sentenced for it," Milanović said during a visit to the Klovićevi Dvori Gallery in Zagreb.

Commenting on Plenković's statement that Milanović had done damage to Croatia's foreign policy, the president today wondered why Plenković, who, he said boasts of his own great influence in Brussels, had not used that influence for the benefit of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Milanović also retorted that by doing nothing for the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who are currently in an unenviable situation, PM Plenković committed high treason.

As for the commemoration in Jasenovac, Milanović said he would go there with his aides rather than with government officials, whom he accused of encouraging Ustasha-related outbursts and then pretending to be liberals.

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ZAGREB, 8 March 2022 - On the occasion of International Women's Day, Croatian President Zoran Milanović on Tuesday visited the exhibition titled "Women and Technology – Exhibition of Gender Inclusive Themes", staged in Zagreb's Nikola Tesla Technical Museum.

The exhibition was opened on 13 November 2021 and will run through 15 March.

It is dedicated to the promotion of women who contributed to the development of science and technology.

"The exhibition made use of permanent exhibits from the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum and includes women that are not necessarily scientists, but professionally carried out work that is typically associated with men. Furthermore, the purpose is not to single out the contributions of individual female scientists and inventors, but to strive to give a broader perspective," according to a press release issued on the website of the Office of the Croatian President.

The exhibition presents information and the destiny of prominent women "who broke down socially imposed barriers and made a name for themselves in male stereotype occupations, and the anonymous women to whom science is indebted."

The exhibition shows that in the late 19th century and 20th century there was a total of 5,280 women employed in Croatia, with almost 2,000 being maids and 1,500 in trades and industry.

Between the two world wars, women accounted for 20% of those employed in industry. In textile industry, every second worker was woman, and most of those female workers were without any qualifications or with semi-qualifications and from rural areas.

In the 1970s they accounted for more than 30% employees in industry while the process of de-industrialisation in the 1990s first affected industries that employed women.

The idea of equal pay appeared in the mid-19th century, however, the pay gap still exists in corporations.

President Milanović noticed that similar pay gaps exist in the public sector too.