ZAGREB, February 10, 2020 - The European Commission has decided to withdraw its draft measure that should have introduced quotas for small pelagic fish in the Adriatic Sea, and some of the credit for that goes to MEP Ruža Tomašić, the Zagreb-based daily Večernji List reported on Monday.

Ruža Tomašić was the European Parliament's rapporteur for that matter in 2017 when she pushed for a report with draft amendments she sponsored which eventually changed the European Commission's initial plan.

The new European Commission led by President Ursula von der Leyen has recently decided to withdraw the draft regulation about the small pelagic fish quota in the Adriatic Sea from the procedure. The reason for dropping the planned quotas is that the EC does not expect agreement on the issue.

In mid-November 2018, the European Parliament adopted a report which Croatian MEP Ruža Tomašić submitted on the Multiannual plan for small pelagic stocks in the Adriatic Sea and the fisheries exploiting those stocks, whereby measures for replenishing the stocks in the Adriatic are suggested, instead of the imposition of quotas for the catch as proposed by the European Commission, which would seriously affect the fishing industry in Croatia.

At that time, Tomašić explained that the imposed quota would have restricted the catch in the whole of the Adriatic Sea to 50,000 tonnes of small pelagic fish annually, whereas Croatia's catch was about 60,000 tonnes and the amount in the region now stood at 100,000 tonnes. Another Croatian MEP, Ivan Jakovčić, endorsed Tomašić's report and called on the EC to pursue a policy that would be beneficial to the Adriatic fishermen. He explained that the introduction of the quotas as proposed by the EC would have been detrimental to the blue growth in the Adriatic region.

Dubravka Šuica, who was also one Croatia's 11 MEPs in 2018, reported that she supported Tomašić's reports and that she had not endorsed the EC's proposal for incorporating a set of measures into a multi-annual plan for the Adriatic Sea that would manage the fisheries in the Adriatic Sea based on the Biomass Escapement Strategy and a quota system.

Tomašić told the Večernji List daily on Monday that she was satisfied that there would be no prescribed quotas for small pelagic fish in the Adriatic.

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

ZAGREB, November 24, 2019 - A member of the European Parliament, Ruža Tomašić of the Croatian Conservative Party, on Sunday supported the presidential candidacy of Miroslav Škoro, saying that he was the presidential candidate she trusted the most because he had proven to be capable of making a good living outside of politics and that he understood ordinary people.

Signing a list of support for Škoro's presidential bid in downtown Zagreb, Tomašić said that she hoped he would win the elections already in the first round on December 22 and prove that Croatia could do without both the HDZ and the SDP.

Škoro is better than the other candidates because he is a self-made man, a musician and scholar and a representative of ordinary people, Tomašić said, adding that Škoro would not listen to instructions either from Washington or Brussels or Strasbourg.

Asked if he could run away from his political past as a member of the HDZ, Tomašić said that he had run away from it when he left the HDZ and the Croatian parliament after "seeing that something was wrong there and he now knows what should be changed and what should not."

As for the presidential candidates Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and Zoran Milanović, Tomašić said that they had already shown what they could and could not do.

She noted that Grabar-Kitarović was good at the beginning. "But the moment she met for talks with (Serbian President Aleksandar) Vučić, a Chetnik who has not renounced Chetnik ideology... and for his sake told mothers and widows of Croatian defenders killed in the war that they were on the margins (of the political spectrum), I said - this is not it any longer," Tomašić said.

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

ZAGREB, August 25, 2019 - A Croatian member of the European Parliament, Ruža Tomašić, as well as a presidential candidate, Miroslav Škoro, on Saturday criticised the Croatian Serb leader Milorad Pupovac of "adding fuel to the flames" following the incidents in two cafes near Knin.

Following Pupovac's statements that the situation in Croatia's society resembled the times in the aftermath of Croatia's war of independence and that he would inform international institutions of the violations of minority rights, MEP Ruža Tomašić says on her Facebook profile that every violence should be condemned and perpetrators should be brought to justice, however, the politicisation "is counterproductive".

Tomašić says that Pupovac's rhetoric more and more resembles that of by Croatian Serb rebel leaders -- Jovan Rašković, Milan Babić and Mile Martić -- "who intimidated members of the Serb minority in Croatia and incited them to turn against their homeland".

Škoro says on his Facebook account that Pupovac's rhetoric looks like statements and views of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

"Instead of defusing the tensions created in the incident, Pupovac adds fuel to the flames, and wants to score political points from the attacks against Croatian citizens, which deserves absolute condemnation."

Both Škoro and Tomašić criticise the ruling majority of keeping silent to Pupovac's claims.

The 21 August assault against guests in a cafe in the village of Uzdolje near Knin is qualified by the Sibenik county law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities as an act of causing riot.

The police are searching for masked thugs who inflicted injuries to several people, including a 9-year-old boy, and damaged the interior of that cafe on Wednesday evening while in its guests were watching a TV broadcast of a football match between the Belgrade-based Crvena Zvezda and the Swiss club Young Boys. A few guests sustained light injuries and a 17-year-old injured boy was hospitalised in the Knin hospital for some time for his injuries.

In the Đevrske cafe thee guests were exposed to verbal attacks that night.

More news about the Knin incidents can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 13, 2018 - The European Parliament on Tuesday adopted a report which Croatian MEP Ruža Tomašić submitted on the Multiannual plan for small pelagic stocks in the Adriatic Sea and the fisheries exploiting those stocks, whereby measures for replenishing the stocks in the Adriatic are suggested, instead of the imposition of quotas for the catch of Adriatic fish as proposed by the European Commission, which would seriously affect the fishing industry in Croatia.

"I knew that it would be tough, but we have succeeded. The European Parliament has been the last defence line and our diligent work has halted the Commission's harmful proposal that would have had a devastating effect on Croatia's fisheries, the fish processing industry, tuna fisheries and coastal communities living off fisheries," Tomašić said after her report was endorsed.

She explained that the imposed quota would have restricted the catch in the whole of the Adriatic Sea to 50,000 tonnes of small pelagic fish annually, whereas Croatia's current catch is about 60,000 tonnes and the amount in the region now stands at 100,000 tonnes.

Another Croatian MEP, Ivan Jakovčić, endorsed Tomašić's report and called on the EC to pursue a policy that would be beneficial to the Adriatic fishermen. He explained that the introduction of the quotas as proposed by the EC would have been detrimental to the blue growth in the Adriatic region.

Dubravka Šuica, also one Croatia's 11 MEPs, reported that she supported Tomašić's reports and that she had not endorsed the EC's proposal for incorporating a set of measures into a multi-annual plan for the Adriatic Sea that would manage the fisheries in the Adriatic Sea based on the Biomass Escapement Strategy and a quota system.

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ZAGREB, January 16, 2018 - The European Parliament on Tuesday voted on new rules to limit harmful fishing and adopted an amendment by Croatian member Ruza Tomasic rescinding a restriction of the use of purse seines which was unfavourable for Croatian fishermen due to the configuration of the Adriatic seabed.

After the MEP made quite a bold statement about her desire to send the armed forces to Savudrija, she now poses a rather pressing question to the EC...

MEP Ruža Tomašić claims the government should react to Slovenia's recent actions regarding the border dispute by deploying the police and armed forces to the maritime border