ZAGREB, 13 July, 2021 - Some opposition parties claimed on Tuesday that the new waste management law will result in higher bills for citizens and that this will in particular affect lessors and small entrepreneurs.

The entire waste management system is based on waste management centres which are very expensive and that will be evident once citizens receive their new bills, said MP Sanja Udović (SDP).

She claimed that in those areas where these centres have been established, citizens can expect their bills to increase by 100 percent. "We, in Primorje Gorski Kotar County can soon expect the end price to go up, that means the price citizens pay will increase by some 30 to 40 percent," she said.

MP Marin Lerotić (IDS) underscored that the new bill doesn't go in favour of citizens nor lessors or small businesses who have been categorised as non-households and will pay a higher price.

"Shopping centres will pay the same, minimal service, as will shoemakers, or camp sites for up to 10,000 people will pay the same as a family-owned camp site with a capacity of up to 12 people. Hotels with a capacity of 100 rooms will pay the same price as a lessor of a flat," warned Lerotić.

MP Josip Borić (HDZ) explained that the government was providing a framework for prices to be defined by the local government.

"The opportunity exists to reduce the price for those who need to be rewarded. It contains criteria that allow that reduction for enterprises to certain household members, you can make them up yourself and include them in the price list," he said.

Local government officials have to realise that their role in waste management will be more complex, constructive, creative and more responsible, state-secretary in the Economy Ministry, Mile Horvat said.

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ZAGREB, 7 July, 2021 - MP Dragana Jeckov of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) said on Wednesday that there are "definitely" no segregated schools or exclusively Serb schools in Croatia, let alone a segregated state education system.

Jeckov made the statement in parliament following statements in the media by "quasi-reformists of minority education," primarily the one conducted in the Serbian language and Cyrillic script.

"Certain myths need to be debunked," she said, including the one that Serbs in Croatia have separate schools and that they are being taught from textbooks from Serbia, based on the so-called Serbian programme.

"In Croatia, there are definitely no segregated schools, there are no exclusively Serb schools, let alone schools that are segregated from the state education system," said Jeckov.

The truth is that students go to school within the same building, that they usually go in the same shift, that they have extra-curricula activities together. The only difference is that members of the minority community are taught in their mother tongue and only if their parents decide so.

"Model A is used by the Italian and Hungarian and Czech minorities and they enjoy their minority rights to a greater extent than Serbs because their schools are registered as minority schools, unlike those for Serbs," she said.

She said that the Serb minority is not asking for more than others but it hasn't achieved the level of rights that others have, and that there is no alternative to education in the mother tongue and script.

MP Stipo MIinarić, of the Homeland Movement (DP) retorted that she was not telling the truth.

"Schools are segregated. Children are segregated from kindergarten age to secondary school. That is not good for Vukovar, the Serb community, the Croatian people, for anyone. Why are children being segregated?" he asked.

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ZAGREB, 6 July, 2021 - The Croatian Pension Insurance Institute (HZMO) said on Tuesday that the number of pension insurance contributions had been on the rise for five months in a row, and the number of insurees was higher by 3.54% at the end of this June compared to June 2020.

The government-sponsored amendments were forwarded to the parliament at the session of the Andrej Plenković cabinet on 1 July.

In May, there were 216,000 family pension beneficiaries, and most of them were surviving spouses whose average monthly pension allowance was HRK 2,096, which was below the average pension. For instance, in May, pension associations reported that the average pension paid out  for February stood at HRK 2,567.

The budget allocation for this purpose has been ensured for 2022 and 2023.

According to the government's estimates, this year, an estimated 1,100 recipients of family pensions can exercise this right to work part-time and continue receiving family pensions. In 2022, the numbers can rise to 3,200 and in 2023 to 4,100 beneficiaries.

(€1 = HRK 7.484635)

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ZAGREB, 17 June 2021 - The Croatian Parliament is expected, among other things, to vote on the budget revision on Friday, after the opposition put forward about one hundred amendments.

The government's representatives rejected all the amendments put forward by opposition groups.

The government has stuck to its plan for budget revenue to be increased by HRK 3 billion to HRK 150.3 billion and an expenditure increase of HRK 9.4 billion to HRK 167.4 billion.

It is estimated that the budget deficit will increase by 2.9% to 3.8% of GDP.

The budget has been revised due to the consequences of the COVID epidemic, primarily due to problems in the health sector and debt to wholesale drug suppliers after all legal means have been exhausted to settle the debt with the reallocation of budget funds.

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ZAGREB, 16 June, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday at the forum "Human Rights in the Coronavirus Crisis" that encroaching on the intimate space of human freedoms required a decision of the parliament, which he would have let it make if he were prime minister during the crisis.

Milanović said at the forum at the Faculty of Law that "in this crisis, we are not talking about human rights but about fundamental human freedoms."

"My right to breathe, to sneeze, to walk, to move - that is my human freedom. In order to affect that deeply intimate space, it is necessary to have a decision of a representative body," Milanović said.

In his presentation, he referred to Articles 16 and 17 of the Constitution and said that the coronavirus situation had met the conditions for declaring a state of emergency.

"Article 17... refers to a state of emergency, imminent danger of war or a natural disaster. It doesn't matter if this virus, and a virus is a natural fact and attacks a living organism, originated as a fact of zoonosis or was released by the Chinese or escaped from the laboratory, it makes no difference. That is a serious matter. It puts lives in danger. If that doesn't meet the conditions (for declaring a state of emergency), nothing does," Milanović said.

He added that if the coronavirus crisis had happened during his term as prime minister, he would have let the parliament vote in the relevant decisions, which would result in greater public trust, instead of having a COVID-19 response team do it.

Everything we watched for a year and a half was surreal, he added. He praised the fact that the vaccine was produced so quickly, adding that everything else was wrong.

Ombudswoman: Citizens had numerous complaints

According to Ombudswoman Tena Šimonović Einwalter, during the pandemic citizens had questions and complaints related to passes, self-isolation, access to health care since family doctors were not available to them and their examinations were cancelled, and they also sent questions related to the right to work, that is, to work from home or work in the office.

In the past few months, the ombudswoman has been receiving questions about vaccination and in the past few weeks, about COVID passports.

She also said that the frequent changes in the anti-epidemic measures and vague recommendations had led to an increase in dissatisfaction and fear among citizens, which had further undermined trust in institutions.

The ombudswoman said that there were solutions and that her report for 2020 had been discussed in the parliament, and now she hoped that the recommendations would be implemented.

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ZAGREB, 8 June, 2021 - Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said on Tuesday that the number of MPs allowed to be present in the Parliament chamber at the same time would be increased from 41 to 71 following an improvement in the epidemiological situation.

A total of 77 persons may be present in the Parliament chamber at the same time. Given that government representatives and administrative staff are always present, we have agreed that 71 MPs can sit in the Parliament chamber at the same time, while others will be sitting in other rooms," Jandroković told the press after a meeting of the Parliament Presidency.

The Croatian Parliament has 151 seats.

He noted that wearing face masks would continue to be mandatory. MPs will be allowed to take off their mask when speaking from their seat or addressing the chamber from the lectern from behind a plexiglass shield.

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ZAGREB, 2 June, 2021 - Recent frequent attacks on media, reporters and political analysts by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković were met on Wednesday with condemnation by opposition MPs, who called on him to accept criticism and on media not to allow to be intimidated.

Social Democrat Arsen Bauk said the prime minister had opted for the "attack is the best form of defence" approach.

"Some defeats at local elections are painful for the HDZ, notably the prime minister, because he chose or imposed some of the candidates. It is not good for the prime minister, who has both objective and real power, to try to square accounts with or intimidate reporters, media and their editors and owners. I hope you will not let yourself be intimidated by him," Bauk told reporters in the parliament.

Judging by their response, I can see that they are not intimidated, he said, adding that he was fascinated by Plenković's claim that rival broadcasters had colluded to devalue the HDZ's candidate for Zagreb mayor.

Stephen Bartulica of the Homeland Movement said that media were possibly responsible for the latest developments because they had been very mild towards Plenković from the start.

"I definitely support media freedoms and it is not unusual that media in Croatia and the rest of the world are leaning to the left, but I think that what is more important here are the so-called independent analysts who often have material interests and certain relations with political camps and NGOs and who act in public as if they were unbiased," said Bartulica.

The sole MP of the Reformists party, Natalija Martinčević, who chairs the parliamentary Media Committee, said that the prime minister was very nervous, which she considers inappropriate.

"Communication with the media must be civilised. We are all expected to behave that way and so is the prime minister. There is no justification for his behaviour," she said.

Most MP Marija Selak Raspudić said that media had been the PM's fetish for a long time.

"Let me remind you of his high school graduation thesis 'Means of Mass Communication' in which, apart from extensively quoting (Yugoslav Communist politician Edvard) Kardelj and Marx, he also says that the Party is the one to control all information in society. He then advocates some democratic trends and says that media should be democratised, but it seems that as an experienced politician he has accepted the principle that the Party should control all information and is surprised when he does not manage to do it," said Selak Raspudić.

HSLS MP Dario Hrebak said that every politician had their own style of communication, noting that the prime minister was evidently irritated by something.

"I, too, am sometimes unhappy with the media but everyone has the right to say what they think, I would not be a liberal if I thought differently," he said, adding that he believed the prime minister would mend his relationship with the media and some reporters.

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ZAGREB, 30 May, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Sunday issued his Statehood Day message in which he underscored the importance of the first multiparty parliament, established on 30 May 1990, for the following period of Croatia and he pointed out the importance of the post-pandemic and post-quake recovery.

Croatia is observing Statehood Day on Sunday in memory of 30 May 1990 when, after decades of communist rule, the foundations of the modern Croatian parliament, the Sabor, were created and its historic role in the preservation of Croatian statehood was confirmed.

"Statehood Day has great importance for all of us, because the foundation of the first democratically elected multiparty Sabor on this day in 1990, meant the birth of a Croatian democracy," Prime Minister Plenković said in his message, extending his best wishes to Croatia's citizens in the country and abroad on the occasion of this public holiday.

On this day 31 years ago, Croatia restored its sovereignty after centuries-long strugle for its own state and since then the Croatian people has been managing its state in a democratic way, he added.

Plenković recalled all the challenges Croatia has weathered to date, including the 1991-1995 Homeland War, the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 devastating earthquakes, and underscored that "Croatia can be proud of its achievements in last three decades of its independence."

"We established the institutions of a democracy, gained international recognition, set up a respectable army, defended and liberated our homeland, reconstructed the war-ravaged areas and built a modern state that is now a member of NATO and of the European Union which we already chaired. We have restored the economy and enabled investments in the upgrade of the infrastructure."

The priorities in the coming period are the recovery of the economy at a faster rate and the post-quake reconstruction.

"We are committed to the implementation of a set of necessary reforms and investments that will improve the living standards of our citizens and further modernise our economy and make it more competitive and resilient to future crises."

For that purpose we will make use in the best possible way of 24 billion euros of EU funds put at Croatia's disposal, the premier promised.

We will continue developing our democracy, solidarity, tolerance in the society as well as social responsibility, he added.

Croatia is on the right track to join the passport-free Schengen area and the euro area in the next years, which will make Croatia's European Union integration deeper and also strengthen the security along the Croatian borderlines, as well as bolster the national economy, he says in his Statehood Day message.

Plenković thanked Croatian war veterans for their sacrifice during the Homeland War in which Croatia defended itself against the Great Serbia aggression. 

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ZAGREB, 30 May, 2021 - Croatia is observing Statehood Day on Sunday in memory of 30 May 1990 when, after decades of communist rule, the foundations of the modern Croatian parliament , the Sabor, were created and its historic role in the preservation of Croatian statehood was confirmed.

This year Statehood Day is being observed on the 31st anniversary of the inauguration of Croatia's first democratic and multi-party parliament at which Žarko Domljan was elected speaker.

The inauguration of the new Sabor of the then still Socialist Republic of Croatia was performed "in an exceptionally festive atmosphere," historian Ivo Perić says in a book on the Croatian parliament.

Stjepan Mesić was elected chairman of the Sabor's Executive Committee and Franjo Tuđman chairman of the Socialist Republic of Croatia Presidency.

Addressing the MPs on that occasion, Tuđman said that throughout history "the Croatian state parliament was the guardian of the sovereignty (except from 1918 to 1941) of the Croatian people in relation to other national and state communities."

The first Sabor had 351 members and three councils - the Municipalities Council, the Associated Labour Council and the Social-Political Council.

The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) had 207 seats, the League of Communists of Croatia - Party of Democratic Changes 107, the Coalition of People's Accord 21, and the Serb Democratic Party five, while 13 were independent and ethnic minority MPs.

The 1990 parliament was in office a little over two years. Elections for its House of Representatives were held in August 1992 and the new Sabor was unicameral and had 138 MPs.

Independently of that and the fact that it served part of its term in wartime, the first parliament adopted historic decisions on Croatia's sovereignty and independence, on severing state and legal ties with the Yugoslav federation, as well as the 1990 Christmas Constitution.

This year is the second in a row in which Croatia is observing Statehood Day on 30 May. Two years ago that was Croatian Parliament Day, a memorial and working day, while Statehood Day was observed on 25 June, a public holiday and non-working day.

In 2019, the HDZ majority in parliament reinstated 30 May as Statehood Day as it was in the 1990s.

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ZAGREB, 27 May 2021 - Draft amendments to the Act on Establishing the Hydrocarbon Agency,  which was discussed by lawmakers on Thursday, will expand the agency's powers and adjust its activities to the exploration and exploitation of geothermal resources and underground gas storage.

The economy and sustainable development ministry's state secretary Ivo Milatić informed the parliament that the agency's participation in amending zoning plans would be also expanded.

Milatić said that only 18% of Croatia's needs for oil were now covered by production from domestic sources, and therefore it was important to find new sources.

The logic behind the production of energy from renewables would be to offset the difference between the market and producing price so as to make production efficient.

Vesna Vučemilović of the Homeland Movement party said that hydrocarbon reserves should be preserved as a raw material for the chemical industry.

Ante Deur of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) announced support to the draft amendments, underscoring that the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons created a strong impetus to developing the industry and supporting activities, and to economic growth too.

60 exploitation fields

Croatia has 60 exploitation fields, 57 on the continental shelf of the country and three offshore. The Agency plays an extremely important role as it ensures optimum level management of hydrocarbons and petroleum product reserves, and of geothermal sources, Deur said.

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