ZAGREB, 20 Sept 2021 - In an address to members of the Croat expatriate community in New York on Sunday, Croatian President Zoran Milanović said that Croatia "is a very safe country" and that it had never been stabler as well as that it was responsible for its neighborhood staying safe as well. 

Milanović arrived in New York on Sunday to attend the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, during which he is expected to hold several bilateral meetings, including with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

On the first day of his visit, Milanović met with representatives of the Croat community at the St. Nikola Tavelić Centre, which is part of the Parish of Saints Cyril and Methodius and St. Raphael, and in his address to them, he said that he was more interested in developments in Croatia and its neighborhood than in topics to be discussed by the UN General Assembly.

"I cannot do a lot, but being President, my voice in the region is heard, analyzed, and criticized, and I will go on," Milanović said as quoted by a statement from his office.

He said that he was dissatisfied with developments in the region, describing Croatia as the most rational stakeholder.

"Fortunately, this is no longer 1990, there is no danger of a serious conflict erupting. But we must follow what is happening in our neighborhood, and people there have been behaving as if war did not happen and no lessons were learned from what happened in the 1990s."

"In all of that, Croatia and the incumbent government, I as President, and my predecessor are the calmest, most conciliatory, and most rational. We are responsible for keeping the region peaceful, safe, and for life in Croatia to stay normal and safe. Croatia is a very safe country," he said.

Despite disagreements on a daily basis, Croatia has never been stabler, Milanović said in his address.

He also again underlined the importance of Croatia making the most of the benefits of its EU membership and fighting for its own interests and repeated his position on COVID-19, calling for lifting epidemiological restrictions.

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ZAGREB, 17 Sept 2021 - Croatia will continue to support Montenegro's European path as a pro-European Montenegro is important as a neighbour and NATO partner, Croatian President Zoran Milanović said on the Brijuni archipelago on Friday, where Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović wrapped up a two-day visit to Croatia.

The two presidents exchanged information and views on Montenegro's EU accession negotiations as well as the situation in Montenegro and Southeast Europe, Milanović's office said in a press release.

Montenegro should continue to develop as a democratic, secular and pro-European state, said Đukanović.

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ZAGREB, 17 Sept 2021 - President Zoran Milanović will fly to USA on Sunday to attend the 76th UN General Assembly in New York next week, the Office of the Croatian President said in a press release on Friday.

The 76th General Assembly of the World Organization starts on Tuesday, 21 September, and the Croatian head of state will address the General Debate on that day.

Milanović will also participate in the high-level meeting called "Transformative Action for Nature and People" on Wednesday.

During his stay in New York he is expected to meet UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He will visit the local Croatian expat community and hold a lecture at Columbia University.

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ZAGREB, 10 Sept 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Friday that the media frenzy over COVID-19 was grating on people's nerves and that things should start going back to normal.

"We should know the aim of all this frenzy. If anybody tells me that the aim is to completely eradicate coronavirus, I will tell them that this is insane. It is impossible. What matters now is adjustment and resumption of normal life," Milanović told the press in his office.

The story with coronavirus will be over the moment we have more vaccinated people than those who are not vaccinated, he said.

"The media frenzy over coronavirus is starting to grate on people's nerves."

"Everything has been said. Those who have got vaccinated, have solved their problem. If you get vaccinated, you do not stand any chance of developing serious symptoms or consequences. It is then like the flu," the president said.

He also finds it insane to advocate the "obsessive culture of safety".

"No one can be absolutely safe and secure, there is no life without any risk or disease," the president underscored.

Commenting on the high prevalence of this topic in foreign media outlets, such as CNN, Milanović said that each day he wondered "whether he is normal or whether they have gone mad."

"This amounts to sowing panic, and they are not the only ones to have been doing that since the beginning (of the pandemic). Simply, there is no absolute safety that excludes any possibility of getting sick. People develop thousands of more serious diseases, while we have been commenting on COVID for a year and a half."

In response to the comments from the press that Croatia's vaccination rate has not exceeded 50%, Milanović said that he did not care any more about that, since this was a sufficient rate of vaccination.

"Everyone knows that... there is no chance of putting those people at risk," the Croatian president said.

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ZAGREB, 10 Sept 2021 - President Zoran Milanović on Friday received Croatian athletes who won medals at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, and a delegation of the Croatian Olympic (HOO) and Paralympic Committees, presenting the HOO with the Charter of the Republic of Croatia for its 30th anniversary.

Congratulating the athletes on their medals, Milanović said that they had done a great thing for Croatia.

"You have made us very happy, we followed what you did," he said, expressing regret that other Croatian competitors at the Olympic and Paralympic Games who did not win any medals were not at the reception as well.

"They, too, deserve our respect... Croatia owes you, you have done a beautiful thing for the country," Milanović said.

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ZAGREB, 7 Sept, 2021 - The Franak association on Tuesday called on its members to send emails to members of parliament ahead of a parliamentary vote on President Zoran Milanović's candidate for Supreme Court president, Radovan Dobronić, expressing support for his election.

Franak brings together former holders of loans pegged to the Swiss franc whose loans were converted to euro-denominated loans.

On 4 July 2013, the Zagreb Commercial Court delivered a ruling in favour of the Consumer Protection Association which had sued eight banks with regard to the Swiss franc foreign currency clause and their unilateral decision to increase interest rates.

The judgement was handed down by Judge Dobronić, who said at the time that the banks had violated consumers' rights by failing to fully inform them about all the parameters necessary to decide on taking loans.

The ruling on the legal nullity of the currency clause in contracts on loans pegged to the Swiss franc was later upheld by the High Commercial Court.

Eight years ago, Judge Dobronić gave hope to all holders of CHF-indexed loans, the Franak association said today.

"We believe that we do not have to explain in great detail the reasons why we are confident that Judge Dobronić is the only candidate who can launch the necessary changes in the judiciary. We believe that by expressing our support for him we can send a message to members of parliament and let them know who is the citizens' choice," Franak said.

In a draft message of support for Judge Dobronić, which can be sent by citizens to members of the parliamentary Judiciary Committee, which is to interview candidates for Supreme Court president, and their party groups, Franak says: "By supporting Judge Dobronić for Supreme Court President you will restore citizens' hope and faith in judicial autonomy and a just Croatia."

The Judiciary Committee is to interview the candidates on 9 September.

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ZAGREB, 7 Sept, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković on Tuesday issued separate messages offering their best wishes to the Jewish community on the occasion of the holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

"I wish all the best to the Jewish community in Croatia for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot with the traditional greeting 'May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year'," Milanović said, wishing the Jewish community happiness and peace throughout the new year.

Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković wished the Jewish community an abundance of health, happiness, peace and prosperity in the New Year 5782.

"May you spend this holiday period, which is a time of preparation for the great holiday of Yom Kippur, in joy and union with your fellow men. May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year," Jandroković said in his message.

Rosh Hashanah is followed by a ten-day period of repentance which culminates with the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur.

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ZAGREB, 30 Aug 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Monday that the post-earthquake reconstruction process was too slow, warning that if it continued at the current pace, Croatia would lose Petrinja.

"Nothing is happening, unfortunately the process is too slow and if it continues at the current pace, we will lose Petrinja," Milanović said in reference to the town in Sisak-Moslavina County, hit hardest by the 29 December 2020 earthquake.

Asked about the pace of reconstruction, he said: "It is never easy and cannot be easy due to property-rights relations, but if you want something, you remove some barriers, possibly making some minor mistake or damage in the process that you later rectify."

"Croatia today would not have highways that were built, designed and financed in two years if we had dealt with every single private property separately, it would have taken us 300 years had we done so," he added.

He added that Petrinja and Glina, another town that suffered extensive damage in the earthquake, should not be "a tall order" and that adopting a new reconstruction law should be easy.

One or several key persons should be entrusted with the reconstruction process and be given financial powers, Milanović said, drawing a parallel with the process of reconstruction following the 2014 floods in the area of Gunja, which he said had been rebuilt in a few months and was of a similar size as Glina.

"As regards the region of Banija, some things require prompt solutions, there is no need for legal nitpicking over very single piece of property... one should take excavators and make order in Petrinja, there will be people who will file lawsuits but that will be dealt with in the process, otherwise we will lose the city," said Milanović.

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ZAGREB, 30 Aug 2021 - President Zoran Milanović on Sunday attended a special session of the Municipal Council of Vir, near the coastal city of Zadar, expressing satisfaction with the progress of that island community, which, he said, had often been mocked in the past.

"Vir today has a high revenue which it manages well, it has profited from (property) legalisation and it does with the money what its residents expect it to do. I can see that local authorities work in the interest of citizens and that citizens trust them," he said in an address at the session, advising local authorities to apply for EU funds.

He noted that during its membership of the EU so far Croatia had absorbed around HRK 40 billion, which, he said, sounded a lot but was actually little.

"We must, and I believe that we know how to and will, absorb much more money, that possibility is opening up now with the next financial period in which significant funds will be made available to Croatia, plus funds under the NextGenerationEU project, a major EU instrument for recovery from the crisis," he said.

"Your agglomeration project is excellent. One billion kuna for Vir alone... I fully support the government, ministries and all who work on it because it is not simple. One has to know how to use that money... It takes persistence, competence, tactic and taking care of one's own interests. The EU is a good thing but we are primarily a national state... that is where everything began and what people fought and died for," Milanović said in his address, among other things.

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ZAGREB, 26 Aug 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said at a ceremony commemorating civilian victims of the war who died 30 years ago in Kijevo, outside Knin, that reconciliation and forgiveness required reciprocity and not arrogance and haughtiness.

Speaking of Karst areas where residents of Kijevo live and where the early medieval Croatian state hails from, Milanović said "our first churches were built here, our identity is here, our roots are here, this is stone."

"Hardly anything grows in stone, and those who survive, who are strong, who resist, those have a worth and those cannot be rooted out. Those are the people of the Dalmatian hinterland, the people of Herzegovina. They suffered during the war but I don't see them as victims or those who need charity, I see them as winners. Winners who are dignified and at the same time those who forgive and have mercy," Milanović said.

The European Union is founded on the culture of forgiveness, self-reflection, faith into a better future and the right to a new beginning, the president said adding that reconciliation and forgiveness require reciprocity and not arrogance and haughtiness. He recalled that brave soldiers had died in Kijevo, but that defenceless civilians had also been killed there.

"When I visit Grubori, the place where atrocities were committed, I come as president, as a Croat, as a citizen of this country and as a common human being. I have no ultimate expectations, but as a human being it would make me happy if the other side, and I say 'the other side' with caution because I am not a fan of such divisions, would be reciprocal. This is the only way the European civilization, good neighborly relations, and unity survive," the president said.

Milanović took part in ceremonies, marking the suffering of civilian victims from Kijevo during the Homeland War.

At the beginning of the Homeland War, the Croat-populated village of Kijevo was besieged by the local Serb rebels supported by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) units under the command of Ratko Mladić.

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