ZAGREB, February 13, 2019 - Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on Tuesday wrote to her Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella, dismissing as inappropriate and unacceptable European Parliament President Antonio Tajani's statement about "Italian Istria" and "Italian Dalmatia", and in a separate letter to Tajani she requested an "unambiguos apology".

Grabar-Kitarović on Monday commented on Tajani's statement, made at the Basovizza pit near Trieste this past Sunday, saying that the European Union was not founded on principles of revisionism and irredentism.

Addressing an event commemorating victims of the foibe, karst pits in Istria, Croatia, and part of northern Italy, into which the bodies of Italians, killed by Yugoslav Partisans in the aftermath of WWII, were dumped, Tajani said "Long live Trieste, long live Italian Istria, long live Italian Dalmatia."

"I reject in the strongest terms and condemn attempts to change history and lay claims on Croatian territory," Grabar-Kitarović said in a press release on Monday, adding that she would notify Italian and EU institutions about this issue.

"I am deeply appalled and disappointed (...) as is the entire Croatian public, at the statement about the so-called 'Italian Istria' and 'Italian Dalmatia' the European Parliament President made at the commemoration for the foibe victims in Basovizza," the president wrote in the letter to Mattarella.

The statement is contrary not only to the spirit of good neighbourly relations between the two countries and international agreements, but unfortunately revives the spirit of expansionist policies that were the root of many evils in the 20th century, "which, to my knowledge, you, too, have condemned," Grabar-Kitarović says in the letter to Mattarella.

Croatia and Italy are two friendly neighbouring countries and allies sharing common EU values which Croatia wants to promote to the benefit of both nations and the entire EU, she says.

In her letter to Tajani, Grabar-Kitarović said that his words had personally insulted her because she came from a region which in the 1920s and 1930s and in World War II was affected by Italian fascist occupation and where traces of fascist crimes were still visible everywhere.

Any totalitarianism should be condemned and every victim of "fascist, Nazi and communist crimes" should be honoured, she said, expressing regret about all those who had to leave Croatia during and after WWII due to opposition to the communist regime.

That fate befell also many Croats, as well as members of other peoples, including Italians, she said, adding that with his statement, Tajani disregarded the historical context and insulted all Croatian citizens, notably those whose family members were killed during the fascist occupation of parts of Croatia.

Grabar-Kitarović added that Tajani's statement had also caused unease among members of the Italian ethnic minority in Croatia which she described as "a constructive stakeholder" in the Croatian society.

The Croatian and Slovenian members of the European People's Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament wrote to Parliament President Antonio Tajani on Tuesday asking him to apologise and retract his statement about "Italian Istria and Italian Dalmatia" because it can be understood as a territorial claim and revisionism.

"Your statement from Basovizza, which we condemn, has unfortunately opened long healed wounds. Your statement can be understood as territorial pretensions as well as revisionism and unfortunately leaves no room for a different interpretation. We take note that you felt sorry but we expect your clear apology and withdrawal of your statement," the Croatian and Slovenian MEPs said in their letter.

Tajani addressed a memorial ceremony for Italian victims of the Second World War in Basovizza, near Trieste on Sunday, concluding his speech by saying: "Long live Trieste, long live Italian Istria, long live Italian Dalmatia."

"Your statement has deeply offended the citizens of Croatia and Slovenia and it goes against the spirit of the duties you perform in your function as President of the European Parliament," the letter said.

The MEPs said that the victory over Fascism "is a civilizational fact, as is commemorating all the innocent victims," regardless of whether they were the victims of Communist or Fascist regimes.

"We believe that it is important from your side to remove any doubt as to the respect for the territorial integrity of Croatia and Slovenia. We therefore invite you, in the name of historical truth, to join us in marking the sites of crimes of all totalitarian regimes in Croatia and Slovenia as a warning that something like that should never happen again. Croatia and Slovenia are independent and sovereign states, while the Slovenian and Croatian regions in Istria and the Croatian regions in Dalmatia are regions with a long history," the letter said.

The MEPs said they were "committed to the continuation of friendly and good neighbourly relations between Slovenia, Croatia and Italy."

The letter was signed by the Croatian MEPs Dubravka Šuica, Ivana Maletić, Željana Zovko, Ivica Tolić and Marijana Petir, and the Slovenian MEPs Milan Zver, Franc Bogovič, Alojz Peterle, Romana Tomc and Patricija Šulin.

More news about the relations between Croatia and Italy can be found in the Politics sections.

ZAGREB, February 12, 2019 - European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said at a plenary on Monday that in his statements in Basovizza, Italy on Sunday there were no territorial claims on Croatia and Slovenia and that he was sorry they were misinterpreted.

My statements do not mean territorial claims in any way. I was talking about Istrians and Dalmatians who speak Italian, whose many sons and grandsons were present at the commemoration. The Italian, Croatian and Slovenian peoples and states have strong ties and I'm sorry if the meaning of my words was misinterpreted. I didn't intend to offend anyone. I wanted to send a message of peace to everyone so that what happened then doesn't happen ever again, Tajani said at the start of the plenary after Croatian MEPs Ivan Jakovčić and Ruža Tomašić asked for an explanation.

Tajani said he was commemorating the victims on the Italian side as well as all the victims of that unfortunate period, Slovenians and Croats, and that he was talking in a historical context. Speaking of thousands of innocent victims, he underlined that it was not a matter of retaliation for the wrongs of fascism because, he said, among the Italian victims of unacceptable hatred, which was ideological, ethnic and social, there had been many who had nothing to do with the fascists and their persecutions.

With my presence, I wanted to remember thousands of victims, notably Italians, but also Croats and Slovenians, Tajani said, adding that in his address at Basovizza he wanted to highlight the path of peace and reconciliation between the Italian, Croatian and Slovenian peoples as well as their contribution to the European project.

By re-establishing the historical truth, it was possible to make a turnaround in the relations between Italy, Croatia and Slovenia, countries bound by a firm friendship today, Tajani said, adding that lasting peace between former enemies was the best example of how the EU was a success story.

During Sunday's commemoration for WWII foibe (karst pits) victims in Basovizza near Trieste, Tajani said "Long live Trieste, long live Italian Istria, long live Italian Dalmatia".

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday he had rung European Parliament President Antonio Tajani over his controversial statement about "Italian Istria and Italian Dalmatia" and told him that Croatia was extremely displeased with it and wanted an explanation.

Plenković condemned the statement in the strongest terms, saying it "has elements of territorial claims and revisionism" and that the government and his HDZ party were against it in the strongest terms. The HDZ is part of the European People's Party like Forza Italia, the party in which Tajani is a key figure.

"I spoke to Tajani today. I told him we were extremely displeased with such a statement, which is inappropriate, and we requested an explanation," Plenković said, adding that he expected Tajani to issue a statement on the matter.

"The Croatian government and the HDZ will always strongly oppose any statements which could have either territorial or revisionist pretensions," Plenković said, adding that he had not expected such a statement from Tajani, with "whom I've had a very good relationship in every possible cooperation situation."

"We've known each other very well for six years now and there's never been even the smallest hint of such a position, nor could it have been guessed," said Plenković.

"I don't want to justify him at all, it's very important that you understand that. However, putting into context the event at which this happened, in Basovizza, with the heirs of the people who left Croatian territory as well as the defendants of those whose lives, unfortunately, ended in the foibe, he was addressing them. But this doesn't exculpate him in any way from formulations which in Croatia, to all political stakeholders, I believe, especially the government, me personally and the HDZ, are absolutely unacceptable, and we made it very clear to him."

Plenković said Tajani's statement about "Italian Istria" and "Italian Dalmatia" left no other interpretation other than one of revisionism, adding that he assumed Tajani would say in his explanation that he meant the people he was addressing, not the territory, and that he told him so.

The leader of Croatia's strongest opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP), Davor Bernardić, said on Monday that the idea that Istria and Dalmatia were Italian was "a basic idea of fascism" which had been fought against by Croatian antifascists in the Second World War.

The Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) and the SDP's Pula branch expressed regret that "the fate of this region is again being manipulated by people who do not live in Istria and Dalmatia."

"At a time that called for resistance to fascism as the common enemy, the people of Istria uncompromisingly joined the victorious side regardless of their Slovenian, Italian or Croatian background. What gives Mr Tajani, and his ilk, the right to use historical revisionism, which is not in the spirit of the European acquis communautaire and our values, to reopen divisions in this region where antifascism and convivenza (co-existence) are the foundations of today's society, the society of the 21st century," the SDP said.

"Unfortunately, statements like this are nothing but the consequence of an irresponsible policy, both in Europe and in Croatia, because they did not promptly respond to historical revisionism but are testing the limits of democracy and freedom of speech for the purpose of getting cheap votes," it added.

The SDP said it was particularly worrying that messages like this came from a person who was supposed to promote European values, wondering: "In what direction is the European People's Party group, of which the (ruling Croatian party) HDZ and Mr Tajani are members and which has a majority in the European Parliament, heading?"

The head of Istria County, Valter Felgo, said: "I condemn in the strongest terms such unreasonable and insane statements. Tajani is the current President of the European Parliament and as such he must respect historical facts, state borders and achievements on which the European Union is founded. To make such a statement in his capacity as European Parliament President is dangerous and disgraceful."

Flego said that Istria would never allow such statements to upset the co-existence of different ethnic groups that has been built for decades. "We have put in a lot of effort so that Istria can become a bilingual and multicultural region. Such brazen provocations cannot jeopardise this," Flego told Hina.

The IDS said that promoting the ideas of fascism was frightening, adding that their message to "all promoters of such ideas and ideologies is: no pasaran!"

Tajani's statement was also condemned by the SDP mayor of Rijeka, Vojko Obersnel, and the HDZ head of Split-Dalmatia County, Blaženko Boban, who said that "Dalmatia is a cradle of Croatianism ... and will forever be an indivisible region."

More news on the relations between Italy and Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 11, 2019 - The Croatian Parliament Deputy Speaker and vice president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Milijan Brkić, on Monday condemned a revisionist statement by European Parliament President Antonio Tajani about “Italian” Istria and Dalmatia, saying "God forbid Italians should care about Dalmatia and Istria the way fascists cared about the Croat people in Dalmatia and Istria."

"The Croatian people is very familiar with the fate that befell us in World War II and God forbid that Italians should care about Dalmatia and Istria the way fascists cared about the Croat people in Dalmatia and Istria," Brkić told a press before a meeting of the HDZ presidency and the National Council when asked to comment on Tajani's statement.

Brkić said Tajani should "sell those ideas of his somewhere else because no-one in Croatia will buy them."

"This is the Croatian state, a lot of blood was spilled for it. It was created in the Homeland War, and Croatian veterans and its people will most definitely not allow that," Brkić said.

Tajani spoke at an event commemorating foibe victims in Bosovizza.

Foibe are karst pits in Istria, Croatia and part of northern Italy into which the bodies of Italians, killed by the Partisans at the end and after WWII, were dumped. Italy remembers the victims on February 10.

Tajani reportedly said, "Long live Italian Istria! Long live Italian Dalmatia!"

More news on the relations between Croatia and Italy can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 10, 2019 - The leader of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), Krešo Beljak, said on Saturday he was certain that the HSS could make a positive surprise at the forthcoming European elections, and that the Amsterdam Coalition could become the strongest political group in Croatia.

"All together, as a party, we must work even better at all levels and we will prove that we will and can do this at the elections scheduled for May," Beljak told a party conference in Jastrebarsko, just southwest of Zagreb.

He said that the HSS would have three candidates on the list of 12 candidates to be fielded by the Amsterdam Coalition: Beljak himself, "as a leader who doesn't shrink from responsibility", independent candidate Zoran Bahtijarević and long-standing party member and economic expert Damir Novotny.

"I am certain that the HSS as a party, all of us here, and all our members throughout Croatia, can make a positive surprise and, with preferential votes for one of the three of the HSS candidates, gather enough votes to claim a victory at the elections for the European Parliament in 2019, and that our coalition, our alliance led by the HSS, can become the strongest political group in Croatia," Beljak said.

He recalled that the negotiations launched last autumn to gather together parties that could run together in the European Parliament elections had been productive and that as a result the HSS was now the leader of the Amsterdam Coalition. "It is an honour to us all that all these parties and all their prominent politicians have recognised and accepted the HSS as the leader of the whole coalition. That gives us additional strength and motivation to justify the confidence our coalition partners have placed in us."

Presenting a report on his work in the last seven months since the previous such conference, Beljak said that the HSS's approval ratings were far below what he would have wanted, but added that the ratings were increasing steadily. "We can only imagine what our ratings would be had all our former members, who did all they could to harm their party, focused their energies on strengthening the party," he said.

Delegates adopted Beljak's report and the new party statute. The report was adopted with five votes against and the statute with four votes against and one abstention. The conference was attended by 623 of 727 delegates, the party's secretariat told Hina.

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

ZAGREB, February 7, 2019 - People are increasingly losing their trust in political processes and it is necessary to ensure that the internet and social media become more transparent so that people can make political decisions on their own, the GONG election monitoring NGO said in Zagreb on Thursday at a conference on possible threats to democracy during this year's European Parliament elections.

"We hope that before campaigning for the European Parliament elections officially starts, we can warn of and prevent the risks of new technologies and previous negative experience in Croatia being repeated," GONG director Jelena Berković said.

"We have to keep in mind that we are living in a country where campaigning on social networks during the second to last parliamentary election is now included in an indictment for money laundering which in fact was committed by a digital team who ran that election campaign," Berković said.

On the occasion of Global Elections Day, and ahead of May's election for the European Parliament, GONG organised a conference about online threats to democracy, with experts discussing cyber security and personal data protection as well as hate speech and preventing fake news in political campaigns.

The conference was organised with the support of the British Embassy, and Ambassador Andrew Dalgleish said it was necessary to arouse interest and inform people in an effort to motivate them to participate in political processes.

Many democratic countries have that problem - disillusionment and distance from political processes. They consider that to be someone else's problem. The media are one of the ways to once again include people in political processes, Dalgleish said in his welcome speech.

Elizabeth Carolan, the founder of the Transparent Referendum Initiative in Ireland - a civic initiative that was established to advocate for increased transparency of digital advertising during electoral campaigns in Ireland, presented the results of a survey on social networks which identified a large number of advertisements targeted at directly influencing voters' decisions.

The head of the European Parliament Liaison Office in Zagreb, Violeta Simeonova Staničić, spoke about the campaign slogan "This Time I'm Voting" as a positive example of informing citizens of key events and policies related to the EU and European Parliament.

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

ZAGREB, February 4, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Sunday that his HDZ party would win May's European Parliament elections convincingly despite the fact that some populist parties were trying to win over a portion of its electorate.

Speaking to the press during a visit to the southern town of Imotski, Plenković said that most people were aware of and appreciated what the HDZ-led government had done and would choose their true representatives.

"The HDZ will once again win the European elections because we are the only true Croatian and European party," Plenković said, adding that his party was also "the strongest nation-building, patriotic, Christian Democrat and people's party in Croatia."

He said that in Croatian political practice parties in power mostly lose public support, but that relevant opinion polls show that this did not happen to the HDZ this time, while at the same time public support for the strongest opposition SDP party has almost been halved and "protest parties" have no solutions.

"Some of the populist parties are on a mission to win over a portion of the HDZ's electorate and that's their sole goal," Plenković said.

The prime minister said that some of them would be pushing for a referendum to get Croatia out of the European Union. "They will be saying, 'why should others decide for us?', but those are just lies," he said, noting that Croatia had received 357 million euro for the Pelješac Bridge construction project and 165 million euro for the reconstruction of Dubrovnik's airport.

The HDZ's political secretary, Lovro Kuščević, told reporters in Imotski that the party was finalising its programme for the European Parliament elections and that it would be presented to the public as soon as it was adopted by party bodies.

He said that the HDZ would run on its own and that the names of the candidates would be made public soon.

Kuščević said that the HDZ expected to win at least five seats in the European Parliament, adding that the party would continue to raise public awareness of the importance of Croatia's membership of the European Union.

"We will continue to lobby within the EU for Croatian projects so that the development of Croatia could continue," Kuščević said.

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

ZAGREB, February 3, 2019 - The leadership of the Croatian People's Party (HNS) on Saturday decided that this parliamentary party would run in the European Parliament elections, set for May, on its own and the slate will be headed by Matija Posavec, the prefect of the northern county of Međimurje.

Addressing the meeting of the HNS main committee, Posavec said that the current state of affairs in Croatia required a new approach to the politics, and the HNS slate for the EP elections would not include the incumbent party leadership.

The HNS list will consist of young members who have earned a good reputation working actively in their communities, he explained. Those will be candidates who have already made concrete decisions, while serving as officials in municipalities, towns or counties' authorities, for better living standards of their fellow citizens, Posavec said.

"I would like to offer to Croatia Međimurje's model of development which could be defined in a few words: a lot of hard work, a bounty of understanding and tolerance and no ideology."

Elections to the European Parliament are held every five years. The citizens of the EU member states elect their representatives to the European Parliament by direct public ballot.

In the coming weeks, the full slate of 12 HNS candidates will be presented.

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

The committee on the internal market and consumer protection of the European Parliament has adopted a law prohibiting sales of apparently same products of different quality in the European Union. This was announced at a press conference by Croatian Member of European Parliament Biljana Borzan. The measure will help protect Croatian consumers, reports Večernji List on January 25, 2019.

“The official position of the European Parliament is that the different product quality in the east and west of the EU must be banned. This is the position to which we have arrived after years of persuasion and explaining! I am delighted with such good results of difficult negotiations. This process has lasted for five years. It is challenging to push a law that nobody wants to happen except you and some of the members from Eastern European countries,” said Borzan.

The committee has adopted the amendment to the so-called blacklist of the directive on unacceptable business practices and has explicitly banned different product quality.

“More than 80 percent of Croatia's citizens believe that large corporations treat us as second-rate citizens. These are the figures I got while doing the first research on product quality in our and German market, which I commissioned together with the Croatian Food Agency. This information meant I had to do something. The European Parliament has adopted the best possible position, despite the difficult negotiations. Now it is up to the Council do to its work, and our government has to play a major role in that,” said Borzan.

The directive stipulates that penalties for producers of double quality products will be up to four percent of their annual turnover. In parallel to the legislative process, the European product quality survey is being conducted, for which funds from the EU budget were also secured by Borzan.

“According to my information, the sample will soon be formed on the basis of the contributions of 19 member states. The first results will be known in a couple of months, and it is possible that the law may be passed before that. This makes the whole issue even more important since first fines are about to be announced,” concluded Borzan.

More news on the activities of Biljana Borzan in the European Parliament can be found in the Politics section.

Translated from Večernji List.

ZAGREB, January 22, 2018 - The European Union's foreign ministers on Monday discussed an action plan to tackle fake news in the context of perceiving fake news as a challenge in the run-up to the forthcoming European Parliament elections, and Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Marija Pejčinović Burić said that there were some in Croatia who resorted to fake news in a bid to win a seat in the European Parliament.

"In the context of preparations for countering fake news and in connection with the forthcoming EP elections, it is obvious that the election campaign has already been launched in Croatia and that there are some who use fake news in an attempt to win a seat in the European Parliament," Pejčinović Burić said in Brussels, answering questions from the press.

She also believes that the recent developments and debates in the Croatian parliament should be perceived in that context.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council focused its debate on the prevention of fake news and the influence of third countries on east and southeast Europe and on the EU's southern neighbours, as well as on the EU member-states.

The action plan outlined by the European Commission in December revolves around the exposure of citizens to large scale disinformation, including misleading or outright false information.

The Commission has engaged with all stakeholders to define a clear, comprehensive and broad-based action plan to tackle the spread and impact of online disinformation in Europe and ensure the protection of European values and democratic systems.

"The European Union has outlined an action plan to step up efforts to counter disinformation in Europe and beyond focusing on four key areas. This plan serves to build EU's capabilities and strengthen cooperation between member states by improving detection, having a coordinated response to threats, collaboration with online platforms and industry as well as raising awareness and empowering citizens," according to information on the EC's website.

The Croatian minister said that by March, the EU member-states are supposed to set up national contact points for the exchange of important information.

In the medium- and long-run it is essential to raise awareness of the existence of fake news and to enhance media culture and ways to interpret information and verify it, she added, calling for a broad struggle against this phenomenon.

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

Amid rumours that the finance minister, Zdravko Marić, is set to step down from his position within the Croatian Government as soon as next month, PM Andrej Plenković has been having his refusal to outright deny the claims scrutinised, with some believing that this means Marić's departure was imminent and due to take place in early 2019. It seems however, that Marić isn't going anywhere.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 9th of December, 2018, HDZ President and PM Andrej Plenković said on Saturday that Finance Minister Zdravko Maric isn't going to leave the government.

"There will be no departure," Plenković told journalists after the he was questioned about whether or not he'd talked to Marić himself about his alleged departure from the cabinet before the end of his mandate, as was being circulated by some media outlets.

The Prime Minister, upon being questioned about the criticisms of controversial SDSS President Milorad Pupovac regarding recent arrests in Vukovar, said that he didn't listen to that press conference, adding that the current government is not interfering with the work of the police or with the work of DORH in any manner whatsoever.

He pointed out, in order to quell people's natural suspicions that "there are no invisible political hands" holding any influence over this process.

When asked about the elections for the European Parliament, PM Andrej Plenković stated that the party would be "almost sure" on their own and that at least five mandates can be expected. "We'll win convincingly in those elections," he said briefly.

Concerning the controversy around the procurement of Israeli F-16 aircraft, Plenković reiterated that everything that the Republic of Croatia did in this process was done systematically, thoroughly, and in fine detail, and that open issues, if there are any, exist solely between Israel and the United States of America, and are nothing to do with Croatia or the part Croatia played in the process.

He confirmed that he visited Zagreb's mayor Milan Bandić was taken to hospital yesterday morning, adding that Bandić claims to be feeling good and that he believes that he will recover and be back on his feet quickly.

Make sure to follow our dedicated politics page for more on PM Andrej Plenković, the Croatian Government, and updates from both domestic and European politics in Croatia.