ZAGREB, 25 Aug, 2021 - Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) is personally financing scholarships in the new academic year for students from Croatia via the "Vladimir Matijević" fund which is managed by the Serb Privrednik association, reads a press release issued by the association on Wednesday.

Underscoring that during his service in Zagreb, when he as Metropolitan ran the Eparchy of Zagreb and Ljubljana, Patriarch Porfirije supported and assisted the association's activities and scholarship holders and that he will continue to do so as the SPC head.

"In the last academic year, Privrednik provided scholarships for 80 students, mostly from underdeveloped areas in Croatia. Ahead of the new academic year, we are intensively collecting funds as we have until now, for scholarships for talented students and those of poorer economic status. Annual scholarships amount to HRK 5,000 for secondary school students and HRK 10,000 for university students."

Some of the distinguished persons from the creative industries have been engaged in the campaign to collect those funds: singer Momčilo Bajagić Bajaga, and actors Goran Bogdan, Voja Brajović, Svetlana Bojković and so on.

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ZAGREB, 24 Aug, 2021 - Prime Minister and Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) leader Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday that the Ustasha salute "For the Homeland Ready" was already now illicit and that police filed reports with courts when such things happened, while it was up to the courts to decide on the matter.

"The salute is already now illicit. This is something that no one questions," Plenković told reporters in Zagreb after a meeting of the HDZ leadership.

He went on to say that on Monday, when  Black Ribbon Day, the Europe-wide Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes was observed, some protagonists from left parties had tried to politicise that issue.

In this context he recalled a recent "semi-incident" in Knin when that salute was shouted and said that the police had reported the case to the court which should now have a say.

Asked by the press whether the penal code should outlaw that salute, Plenković said that initially, this had been suggested by a Croatian Jewish leader, Ognjen Kraus, while representatives of other ethnic minorities in the parliamentary majority did not insist on that to such extent.

"We will discuss the issue, however, such things are already treated as illicit," Plenković told reporters.

He condemned hate speech on social networks aimed at a reporter of the commercial RTL broadcaster, Danka Derifaj, and announced that draft amendments to the Electronic Media Act would soon receive a second reading. He admitted that hate speech on social networks could be successfully halted only when a global solution was found for that problem.

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ZAGREB, 24 Aug, 2021 - Prosecutorial authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and former football coach Zoran Mamić's attorneys said  on Tuesday that they were opposed to his extradition to Croatia, claiming that the legal requirements for his extradition had not been met.

Mamić's attorney Zdravko Rajić and Davor Martinović presented their arguments why Mamić should not be handed over to Croatia.

Croatia's judiciary has requested Mamić's extradition on three grounds: to conduct his retrial based on a Supreme Court ruling quashing a part of the relevant verdict handed down by Osijek County Court ruling, to get him serve a sentence of four years and eight months based on a final ruling; and for the purpose of an investigation into the bribing of three Osijek judges who were in charge of the cases against Zoran Mamić and his brother, former football mogul Zdravko Mamić.

Mamić's attorneys claimed that these were no grounds for extradition.

His attorneys claim that the entire court proceedings against Mamić in Osijek are deeply contaminated because the judges in the proceedings are currently being investigated for graft.

Martinović claimed further that the decision for the imprisonment of the Mamić brothers was still not final because they had not yet submitted an appeal against that decision.

On 12 August the Bosnian court deliberated a separate extradition request for Zdravko Mamić, however, a decision has not been delivered yet.

The prosecutorial authorities in Sarajevo were opposed to the extradition, similarly to previous cases.

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ZAGREB, 24 Aug, 2021 - In its latest publication, focusing on a functional and sustainable local government in the 2021-2026 National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NPOO), the Institute of Public Finance (IJF) says the plan envisages further decentralisation but fails to define any strict deadlines.

"The government has drawn up a plan of national recovery that also envisages the reform of local government. The European Union has supported the plan and is willing to finance it. The plan should definitely be welcomed because in Croatia, which has a large number of local government units with a very small number of residents and very low revenue, their functional and real merger has been long awaited. But since we have already witnessed such plans and projects that have not been implemented, it is necessary to soon define what this plan lacks - firm deadlines for all planned subphases," says the author of the publication, Katarina Ott.

She notes that a functional and real merger of local government units is more than necessary, considering the country's large number of local government units, with about 50 having fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, and the drastic differences between them, both in terms of the population size and revenue.

Ott says that it is not true that local government units are not willing to change and improve, recalling that since 2015 the average budget transparency of all local government units had improved from grade 1.8 to grade 4.5.

"In 2015, only one percent of local government units made their budgets public and in 2021 as many as 80% did so," she said.

The €6.3 billion National Recovery and Resilience Plan envisages promotion of public administration efficiency, including a functional and sustainable local government and investments in its further optimisation and decentralisation through functional mergers, which is estimated to cost HRK 21.6 million, Ott says, noting that the plan lacks firm deadlines for the planned subphases and services.

She also believes that an additional cause for concern is the fact that there is still no official information on a survey by the Public Administration Ministry on the optimisation of local and regional government, which should have been completed and serve as the basis for the reform.

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ZAGREB, 24 Aug, 2021 - Member of Parliament Anka Mrak-Taritaš on Tuesday said that it seems there won't be anything of Zagreb's reconstruction following the earthquake that hit the city 17 months ago and that the lack of goodwill for reconstruction is "the greatest shame of Andrej Plenković's government." 

Seventeen months after the earthquake, there is still nothing regarding Zagreb's reconstruction. There is no longer even any meetings between the government and City authorities. Damir Vanđelić, the director of the Fund for Reconstruction and Economy Minister Darko Horvat have even stopped debating in the media about who is more at fault for that," Mrak-Taritaš told a press conference on Tuesday.

As an example of what could have been done in that time, she recalled that the Empire State Building with its 102 floors was built in sixteen months' time, "and without disrupting traffic."

MP Mrak-Tartiaš warned that eight months had passed since money from the EU Solidarity Fund was paid into the government's account and "that Croatia is at risk of being the first member state to not spend that money within the set deadline and that the country might be compelled to repay it to the EU budget, while at the same time the government is using alibis why things are not being done, from the law to the programme of measures and the fund." 

The sole GLAS lawmaker believes that "it is absolutely certain now" that there won't be anything of Zagreb's reconstruction as that "requires the know-how, good management and will, yet there is none of that." She concluded that the fact that there is no will is the Plenković's government's greatest shame and sin of not doing anything."

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ZAGREB, 24 Aug, 2021 - The 30th anniversary of the establishment of the first Croatian military police unit was commemorated in Odra near Sisak on Tuesday.

A memorial plaque was unveiled on that occasion at the Odra Community Centre by the head of the Croatian Armed Forces Military Police Directorate, Lieutenant General Mate Laušić, and Brigadier Ivica Kranjčević, an envoy for President and Armed Forces Commander in Chief Zoran Milanović.

Addressing the event, Laušić recalled that military police had a special role in the 1991-95 war and that their work had been characterised by professionalism, education and resolve.

Kranjčević said that the first military police unit comprised a small group of honourable men with a strong feeling of patriotism, great resolve and professionalism, who knew how to act appropriately at any time during the Homeland War.

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ZAGREB, 24 Aug, 2021 - Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević on Tuesday presented three new members of the Zagreb Holding multi-utility conglomerate's management board, saying they have ten years of experience in managing positions in Croatian and foreign companies and will take office in September.

"After receiving 73 applications, we shortlisted and interviewed 15 candidates. We chose those three and they will take office in September," Tomašević told the press.

The three new members are Ivan Novaković, Boris Sesar and Matija Subašić Maras.

In June, Nikola Vuković was appointed Zagreb Holding Management Board chair and Ante Samodol a member. The latest additions complete the appointment of the Zagreb Holding Management Board.

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August 23, 2021 - The Science Faculty (PMF) Earthquake reconstruction money was received in July by the Croatian government and Education Ministry. The aid was given to other high-education and scientific institutes that suffered from the earthquake too.

With August concluding, the academic community is waking up after a summer break. Students are preparing for exams, and professors are grading those exams as both groups boldly look towards new wins and losses in October and another season of active higher education in Croatia. However, with faculties being low-key in the summer, one might have missed an important action in early July when prime minister Andrej Plenković and education minister Radovan Fuchs came to Zagreb's National and University Library. They delivered 42 contracts of assigning non-returnable financial aids to reconstruct infrastructure of higher education and scientific institutions hit by the earthquake. The total amount is 2,140,837,980 kuna, and Zagreb's University Faculty of Science (PMF) received a total of 160.988.403 kuna for its own reconstruction after the natural disaster first hit Zagreb on March 23, 2020, and later Petrinja on December 29, which was also felt heavily in the Croatian capital.

With the University of Zagreb being founded in the middle of the 17th century, teaching and research of natural sciences and mathematics, which led to today's PMF, can be found almost two years after the university was founded, on April 21, 1876. The faculty, in its current form of working, was established on June 8, 1946. Since then, PMF has worked on its educational and research contributions, whose excellence is recognized domestically and internationally.

„The Faculty designs and conducts relevant university studies and scientific research programs which are an integral part of the higher education process in the fields of biology, physics, geophysics, geography, geology, chemistry, and mathematics," says the PMF website.

Today, PMF has seven departments (Biology, Physics, Geophysics, Geography, Geology, Chemistry, and Mathematics), organized into 28 divisions. It has around 4000 students enrolled in undergraduate, integrated undergraduate and graduate, and graduate university studies within 35 study programs and about 1000 students at seven postgraduate studies and one postgraduate specialist study.

„It is less known that the PMF also comprises the Seismological Service and its seismological stations all over Croatia, the mareographic station in Bakar, the geomagnetic observatory in Lonjsko polje, and the green jewel located in the very heart of Zagreb – the Botanical Garden. And in the background of it all are nearly 500 scientists and teachers for whom you will not only be just another name on a sheet of paper but a truly personal and (hopefully) successful story about your future and ours“, explained PMF.

The earthquakes damaged PMF, particularly the buildings of biology and geography departments. Still, it is admirable that amidst its own trouble, PMF found a way to help students of the Faculty of Metallurgy in Sisak, which also took a heavy hit from the earthquake, by donating five new laptops for educational purposes.

As TCN previously reported, citizens of Zagreb had mixed feelings regarding how the city and the government handled the situation in Zagreb. However, Croatian Parliament MP Sandra Benčić from the Možemo Green-left coalition, while commenting on the victory of his party colleague Tomislav Tomašević on Zagreb elections, stated that the citizens he helped filling out paperwork for damaged homes needed to receive European funds for the reconstruction, for which Zagreb needs to apply by June 2022 to receive the aid.

With these moves by the new administration and the aforementioned aids for the high scientific institutions, the steps to recover Zagreb, the center of science, culture, politics, economy, and more in the Republic of Croatia are underway. But, it will still take time for citizens to recover fully from 2020's tragedies.

The results of education and science curiosity pay off. Learn more about Croatian inventions & discoveries: from Tesla to Rimac on our TC page.

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ZAGREB, 19 Aug, 2021 - The Social Democratic Party has criticised the government's decision to co-finance the construction of a chapel in Bethlehem with HRK 3.3 million, calling on it to use the money for the reconstruction of houses in the earthquake-hit region of Banija while the GLAS party called the decision scandalous.

"At a time when the healthcare system is under strain, when post-earthquake reconstruction in Zagreb and Banija is late and people lack basic conditions for normal living, our foreign minister considers it a priority to finance the Church," SDP political secretary and MP Mirela Ahmetović said in a statement.

Calling on the government to use the money intended for the chapel to rebuild a dozen homes in Banija or buy expensive drugs for children suffering from rare diseases, Ahmetović noted that the Catholic Church receives around HRK 300 million from the state budget annually plus donations from local government units.

Another opposition party, GLAS, described the government's decision as scandalous, noting that Croatia did not have a sufficient number of radiation therapy machines, which was why some cancer patients had to wait for therapy for up to three months.

"The Andrej Plenković government has always chosen its priorities wisely, including this time. Their clients and the Church that brings votes come first, and if something is left over, citizens get what they really need," the party said in a statement.

GLAS MP Anka Mrak-Taritaš proposed to the parliament that the government should purchase three new radiation therapy machines, one costing HRK 5 million.

Earlier in the day the government decided to allocate 3.375 million kuna(€450,000) for the construction of a Croatian chapel in Bethlehem and thus granted a request made by Conventual Franciscans in Zagreb.

The chapel will be built in Shepherd’s Field in Bethlehem to honour Croatian saints and Croatians who have been blessed.

Friar Sandro Tomasevic, a clergyman in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, told Hina that he was happy with the government's decision and described Croatia's plan to build the chapel as one of the six nations to do so in Bethlehem as a great success.

"It is a great thing for the whole homeland, particularly for our faithful and pilgrims," the priest said.

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ZAGREB, 19 Aug, 2021 - The Croatian government on Thursday decided to allocate 3.375 million kuna (€450,000) for the construction of a Croatian chapel in Bethlehem and thus granted a request made by Conventual Franciscans in Zagreb.

The chapel will be built in Shepherd’s Field in Bethlehem and will honour Croatian saints and Croatians who have been blessed.

This site of worship will give a strong contribution to improving the international recognisability of Croatia and its positioning in Israel and worldwide, the government says in a press release in which it highlights that the Catholic Church is "an integral component of the Croatian past and is intertwined in the national identity of Croatians as well as in the spiritual and cultural development of Croatian society."

There are plans for the construction of six chapels in the said area of Betlehem.

The Custody of the Holy Land has donated the land to the city of Bethlehem, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said today.

All the necessary building permits for the Croatian chapel have been issued, and the project is estimated at €450,000, while the interior of the chapel will be decorated with paintings and artworks donated by Croatian artists, Grlić Radman said.

Friar Sandro Tomasevic, a clergyman in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, said in his statement for Hina that he was happy with the government's decision and described the fact that Croatia would be one of six nations to build a chapel in Bethlehem as a great success.

"It is a great thing for the whole homeland, particularly for our faithful and pilgrims," the priest said.

The construction material for the chapel, that is stones, timber and other materials, will be transported from Croatia to Israel.

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