ZAGREB, March 18, 2019 - The opposition Živi Zid party presented the joint platform of a group of European populist parties for May's European Parliament election in Zagreb on Sunday, with the party's leader Ivan Vilibor Sinčić saying that they were a new generation of politicians who would build a new and better Europe.

The platform advocating an honest Europe that will be closer to citizens and that will fight against corruption and organised crime was presented by Sinčić and the leaders of kindred European parties – Luigi di Maio from Italy's Five Star Movement, Pawel Kukiz from the Polish party Kukiz 15 and Evangellos Tsompanidis from Greece's AKKEL.

"These European elections will not be won like previous ones where old parties won a majority. The situation will be completely different, and our message is one of hope – things can be different than they are in the EU today," di Maio said to applause and approval from Živi Zid members and sympathisers who gathered for the presentation of the new platform.

These four parties and Finland's Movement Now (Liike Nyt), who did not come to Zagreb, seek to establish their own political group in the European Parliament "to do good things for the benefit of the European nations," as di Maio put it.

"We want people in Europe to live better, we want their work to be appreciated and we want a minimum wage to be determined at the European level. We are fighting for the dignity of the European citizen and if we fail to achieve this, there is no reason for the EU to survive," di Maio said.

Sinčić said that their joint manifesto was not a definitive document and that it would be improved in cooperation with the parties that had acceded to it and that were yet to accede to it.

The 10-point manifesto includes projects promoting direct democracy, respect for the specificities of European countries and rejection of centralisation. It advocates radical change in the European institutions to ensure that the European Parliament is not subordinated to the Commission.

"We want to change the entire concept of European politics, without fake left-right divisions and without rows over fake ideological divisions," Sinčić said.

More news about European elections can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 17, 2019 - The Main Committee of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) on Sunday adopted the party's slate for European Parliament elections with 12 candidates led by incumbent MEP Tonino Picula.

The second candidate on the slate is another incumbent MEP, Biljana Borzan.

Debating the slate, a number of Main Committee members complained about the inclusion of non-party member Mirela Holy. She told reporters she had anticipated objections and criticisms. "I see it as part of party infighting."

The Main Committee also endorsed the joining of Ivo Josipović's Forward Croatia party to the SDP, which SDP president Davor Benardić called a "gathering of all progressive forces in society."

"There's no tolerant, open, progressive, just, modern Croatia without strong social democracy and a strong SDP," he said, reiterating that they wanted Croatia and its citizens to be the equals of other European Union countries and citizens.

More news about European elections can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 16, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović will call the European elections by the March 26 deadline, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said in Split on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting of the HDZ party's Split County branch, Jandroković said after the elections were called, slates would be submitted and confirmed, followed by campaigning and the vote on May 26.

Asked what results the ruling HDZ, of which he is secretary-general, expected in the EP elections and Croatia's presidential election later this year, he said recent local elections in Lika County "have shown the HDZ is convincingly the strongest party, regardless of attempts to downplay our success."

He said the HDZ was the only party which could win 30% of the vote, that every other party had serious internal problems and that the upcoming elections would reflect that. He estimated that the HDZ would score an excellent result in the EP elections and a convincing victory.

Social Democratic Party (SDP) president Davor Bernardić said on Saturday the SDP was seeing to it that Croatian citizens were equal in the European Union and not "second class citizens" and that, for that to be happen, "we must have representatives of Croatian interests in Brussels, not representatives of Brussels' interests in Croatia."

Presenting the SDP's candidates for European Parliament elections in Osijek, Bernardić said the point of being in politics was to provide everyone in Croatia with equal chances and equal rights to succeed.

He said the incumbent SDP MEPs had demonstrated how one should fight for "the interests of our citizens in Brussels."

He said the SDP wanted to ensure equal treatment for Croatian farmers as well as equal hospitality and tourism taxes, which he said were higher in Croatia than in its Mediterranean competitors. He warned that salaries in Croatia were three times lower than elsewhere in the EU.

SDP MEP Biljana Borzan, who is running for reelection, said consumers' problems concerned all EU citizens and that MEPs had the duty to warn about every injustice. "The Social Democrats always were and will be the voice of Croatian citizens in the EU."

She said it was important to motivate people to vote in the EP elections due in May as two-thirds of regulations applying to all Croatian citizens were adopted in the EU.

More news on the European elections can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 14, 2019 - Demanding his resignation, Croatian MEPs from the ranks of the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Greens expressed their outrage at the statements made by European Parliament President Antonio Tajani about Mussolini's fascist regime.

In comments to Italian radio on Wednesday, Tajani said the Italian dictator did some “positive things to realise infrastructures in our country”.

In an interview with Radio24 Tajani said that “before the war, Mussolini did positive things. Until the war and the alliance with Hitler, until the race laws, apart from the dramatic assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, Mussolini did good things, like the infrastructure. You have to be honest.”

Tajani, an Italian centre-right MEP who has led the EP since 2017, then apologised for comments praising Benito Mussolini after coming under fire from MEPs who demanded he retract the comments or resign.

He issued an apology “to all those who may have been offended by what I said, which in no way intends to justify or play down an anti-democratic and totalitarian regime”.

“I have always been wholeheartedly anti-fascist. I have always stressed that Mussolini and fascism were the darkest chapter in the history of the past century, without any distinction,” said Tajani.

MEPs lined up to condemn Tajani.

Croatian MEP Tonino Picula of the Social Democratic Party recalled Tajani's recent revisionist statements about "Italian Istria and Dalmatia," once again calling for Tajani's resignation.

Jozo Radoš of the GLAS/ALDE group, Ivan Jakovčić of the IDS/ ALDE group, and Davor Skrlec of the Green Party joined in condemning Tajani's statement saying that someone who represents the main democratic institution in the EU cannot resort to the same old slogans that fascists and the extreme right have being using since the end of the war to justify the Mussolini regime.

The Mussolini remarks are the second time in as many months that prompted calls for Tajani to resign. Last month he sparked outrage in Slovenia and Croatia after he referred to the regions of Istria and Dalmatia as Italian territory. Mr. Tajani later apologised for the comments, saying they had been misinterpreted.

More news about the European Parliament can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 28, 2019 - The parliamentary European Affairs Committee on Wednesday supported, by a majority vote and one vote against, MEP Ivana Maletić's (HDZ) candidacy for a member of the European Court of Auditors in the period from 2019 to 2025, with Maletić saying that she would freeze her membership in the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) for that period.

The only vote against was cast by independent MP Marin Škibola, who asked Maletić whether it was fair that she be appointed by "political decree without any selection process or test of her competence."

Maletić has been nominated by the government and parliament has to confirm that decision.

Maletić will be interviewed by the European Parliament and has to obtain approval from the European Council.

Speaking to the press, Maletić said that this was "an important step forward" in her professional career.

The Court of Auditors deals with financial audits, efficiency and compliance audits, special reports, such as reports on the new multi-annual financial framework, and regulations on EU funds, she said.

Maletić denied that she was in fact nominated due to inter-party disputes with Andrej Plenković and was in fact being marginalised by the party.

She added that when she took up the new position, she would freeze her membership in the HDZ.

More news on Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 26, 2019 - Matija Posavec, who heads the Croatian People's Party (HNS) slate for the European Parliament elections, said on Tuesday his goal was for Croatia to be more functioning as a European Union member state than it is now, and that the HNS would push for "more European values to enter Croatia."

"With regard to the average pay, we want as many of our citizens as possible to have an average pay above 7,000 kuna. That's the only economic and population reform which can stop emigration," Posavec told reporters in Osijek.

He said Croatia was not absorbing European funds well because it had contracted only 62% and paid out only 26% of the funds available in the 2014-20 period.

He said there had not been much talk in the Croatian political sphere about a European Commission recommendation and law stating that small and medium enterprises must be protected. He pushed for protecting domestic farm products, saying Croatia imports two billion euro worth of food annually.

"If only one percent of that was invested in domestic production, it would be a 20 million euro investment annually in family farms and family SMEs," Posavec said, adding that European values must reach every corner of Croatia because of unbalanced development.

More news on the European Parliament elections can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 24, 2019 - Prime Minister and HDZ president Andrej Plenković said on Saturday the party's slate for the European Parliament elections would be ready by the end of March and that the HDZ would score a convincing victory as the candidates would be very competent and convincing.

He was responding to questions from the press in Gospić.

As for new legislative solutions concerning loans pegged to the Swiss franc and announcements of protests, he said banks, interested associations and the Finance Ministry were continually talking about the matter.

He also commented on the case of Frane Lučić, the only survivor of a 2007 tragedy in which 12 of his fellow firefighters were killed. Lučić has won a lawsuit against the town of Šibenik and the Republic of Croatia, which are to pay him 1.75 million kuna in damages, but the Šibenik prosecutor's office has appealed.

Plenković said he had discussed the case with the minister of justice and that he wanted an equitable settlement and equitable satisfaction.

Plenković also said on Saturday that no political party in Croatia's history had done more for Croatia's sovereignty, independence and freedom than the HDZ.

"No one else either had the opportunity or pushed so much for Croatia's strong position on the international scene," Plenković said in Ogulin at a ceremony marking the 29th anniversary of the HDZ's Karlovac County branch.

He said Croatia and all of Europe were in a complex international context, and that the HDZ's rivals on the far right in the upcoming European Parliament elections, by "preaching sovereignism," were targeting HDZ voters. Their concept of sovereignism is about 30 years old and shows their ignorance of the present and Croatia's position, he added.

Plenković said that when it joined the European Union, Croatia gathered part of is sovereignty at the supranational level in order to be stronger, not weaker. He recalled that a majority of the funding for projects came from the EU.

He went on to say that the HDZ had led reforms aimed at ensuring democratic institutions, high standards in the protection of human and minority rights, a functioning justice system, and press freedoms.

Plenković said the government was continuing with decentralisation. "The HDZ has set partnership, functioning decentralisation, fiscal decentralisation and joint projects as the four main elements for kickstarting the development of all of Croatia."

He said they had ensured 44 projects for Karlovac County worth over 2.5 billion kuna.

More news about the European Parliament elections can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 23, 2019 - The Amsterdam Coalition presented in Zagreb on Saturday a slate with 12 candidates for European Parliament elections, with the message that they are fighting for a progressive, free and prosperous Croatia and against intolerance, incompetence and primitivism.

The slate is headed by Istrian Democratic Party vice president Valter Flego, followed by Jozo Radoš of GLAS and ALDE in the EP, surgeon Zoran Bahtijarević, and Croatian Pensioners Party president and Croatian MP Silvano Hrelja.

These are elections between two Croatias and two Europes, GLAS president Anka Mrak Taritaš said, adding that populists, manipulators and radicals wanted to destroy Europe.

Croatian Peasant Party president Krešo Beljak said Croatia deserved to be part of civilised, antifascist and secular Europe. He voiced confidence that the Amsterdam Coalition would win three seats in the EP.

Flego underlined the importance of the EP elections, saying more and more important decisions were made in the EU. He expects the Amsterdam Coalition to win two seats in the EP.

More news on the Amsterdam Coalition can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 15, 2019 - The European Parliament on Thursday adopted new rules that reduce charges for cross-border money transfers in euro within the EU, eliminating discrimination against member states that are not in the eurozone, which means that fees will be reduced for Croatian consumers too.

"On Thursday, the plenary adopted by 532 votes in favour, 22 against and 55 abstentions, new rules to end discrimination against payment service users in the EU outside the Eurozone," the EP reports on its website.

"Whereas consumers in the Eurozone benefit from the single euro payments area ('SEPA'), those living outside continue to pay high costs for cross-border payments in euro."

Consumers in Croatia on average pay 8.23 euro in transaction fees for every 100 euro in cross-border transactions while Bulgarian consumers on average pay 20 euro for these transactions, a study conducted by the European Commission in 2017 shows. The lowest cross-border transaction fees were paid by Polish consumers (2 euro).

The adopted rules will be the same throughout the EU and will be payable in local currency. An additional advantage of this approach is to boost cross-border shopping, reducing costs for companies and will result in savings of almost 1 billion euro a year.

"Before the end of the year, charges for cross-border payments in euro within the EU must be in line with charges for national payments made in the official local currency (the ‘same charge’ rule). Additionally, member states are free to impose rules on banks to apply the same charges to cross-border and domestic non-euro payments," the EP states on its website.

The new measures will also protect consumers from being charged arbitrary costs for currency conversions. At each transaction, they will be informed about the amount to be paid in the local currency and the currency of their account.

More news on Croatia and the European Union can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 13, 2019 - After a meeting with Croatian and Slovenian representatives of the European People's Party (EPP), European Parliament President Antonio Tajani on Wednesday apologised and expressed his deep regret over statements he made in Basovizza at a recent commemoration for the victims of the foibe, karst pits in Istria.

This afternoon I met with MEPs from Croatia and Slovenia who sent me a letter, I sincerely regret and I apologise for having used words that offended your citizens and were perceived as a form of a territorial claim. I assure you that was not my intention, nor my opinion about that issue, according to a statement by EP President Tajani.

My mentioning Istria and Dalmatia was about Istrians and Dalmatians, their children and grandchildren, many of whom attended the ceremony, Tajani said.

All forms of totalitarianism deserve full condemnation and victims of fascism, Nazism and communism should he treated with equal respect, Tajani said in his statement.

Following an outcry from Slovenian and Croatian politicians, he apologised on Monday saying his comment on the regions "was in no way a territorial claim".

Tajani's explanation that his statement in Basovizza where he mentioned "Italian Istria" and "Italian Dalmatia" was misinterpreted was not accepted by Croatian and Slovenian members of the European Parliament who said on Tuesday they would ask Tajani to retract his statement and announced the possibility of asking for his resignation less than three months before elections for the European Parliament.

Addressing the commemoration for WWII foibe (karst pits) victims in Basovizza near Trieste, Italy, this past Sunday, Tajani said "Long live Trieste, long live Italian Istria, long live Italian Dalmatia." His statement caused public uproar in Croatia and Slovenia.

More news on the European Parliament and the latest controversy can be found in the Politics section.