ZAGREB, Sept 14, 2020  - The interdepartmental aircraft purchase commission will recommend the best bid by December 12, Defense Minister Mario Banozic said on Sunday evening.

"Given that the bids were submitted to the Defence Ministry on September 9 and we have three months, it is easy to calculate that (the deadline) is December 12. In these three months the interdepartmental commission will evaluate all the bids," Banozic said in an interview with the public television service HTV when asked when a decision would be made on which fighter jets Croatia would buy.

"December 12 is the deadline that we have set," the minister said.

He noted that the best bid may not be final, adding that the commission would talk to each bidder. There are various elements that will be decisive, such as the number of flight simulators, the weapons package, pilot training, the payment plan, and cooperation between the states, and the bidders are also expected to reduce the amount of the initial offer, he said.

Banozic said that Croatia should avoid a situation in which other countries would guard its skies. "Croatia should definitely avoid that because it will not be for free. If we leave it to Hungary or Italy, which are mentioned as one of the solutions, we will pay for it, but that money will go to another country."

Milanovic's statement was unfair

Banozic said that it was unfair of President Zoran Milanovic to say that American aircraft should be the first choice because no one from the President's Office is a member of the interdepartmental commission.

"The decision not to be on the commission reduces their responsibility and allows them to speak in public as they now do. And even this, in my opinion, is a form of lobbying and cheering for one of the bids, which in my opinion is unfair," the defense minister said.

"The commission is the place to present one's views. One should be very responsible and not present incorrect solutions to the media. One should not try to curry favor with countries involved in the tender, but should clearly stand behind the offer and support a comprehensive, unanimous solution that will be a credit to the Croatian army and the citizens of Croatia," he added.

Banozic confirmed that there had already been pressure from certain lobbies, saying that a few days before the submission of bids there was news of "a fake offer that will be the best of all," adding that this strategy of misinformation through the media and social networks was well known.

"I think it will intensify as the decision date draws near. But I am sure that if we as members of the commission take a clear and honest approach as we did in putting together the tender, the result will be good for all - for the Croatian army and the citizens of Croatia," the minister said.

Speaking of the impact of the corona crisis on the defense budget, Banozic said that the budget had been cut by HRK 500 million from last year's HRK 5.1 billion to make savings, adding that the number of staff would be reduced by about 20 percent or 200-250 people. He said that the downsizing would be carried out through job reclassification and retirement of staff in consultation with the trade union. 

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ZAGREB, Sept 11, 2020 - German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier supports the policy of reconciliation in Croatia pursued by Croatian President Zoran Milanovic, it was said after their meeting in Berlin on Friday. 

In his first months as head of state, President Milanovic took important steps in the process of reconciliation with the Serbs and the Serb minority in Croatia, and we are grateful to him for that, Steinmeier said.

The German president said he supported his Croatian counterpart on this brave path. This path launched by Croatia will hopefully be an inspiration for others to build bridges, he added.

The Croatian president began his two-day official visit on Thursday by meeting with representatives of Croatian associations in Germany.

Milanovic thanked his host for inviting him and for supporting him on the path of reconciliation in the region. 

I have been pursuing the policy of reconciliation for twenty years and I believe for the first time that we have interlocutors for such policy in Croatia, Milanovic said, adding that he would continue this policy in the future.

Successful Croatian presidency of the EU

The two presidents also discussed the strengthening and functioning of the European Union in the present circumstances of the coronavirus crisis.

With the aid package adopted in June, the EU demonstrated solidarity that is not even remotely possible elsewhere in the world, Steinmeier said.

He praised Croatia for a job well done during its presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of the year.

Strengthening the EU is the most important task and Croatia managed to do that with its presidency under very difficult circumstances. Now it is up to us to continue this work until the end of this year, the German president said.

One of the topics discussed was the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and the Croatian president expressed hope that the epidemiological situation in Croatia after the summer tourist season would calm down.

I hope the Croatian counties included on the German red list will disappear from that list, Milanovic said.

Excellent bilateral relations

Both presidents said that relations between Germany and Croatia were excellent.

Germany's policy towards Croatia has always been predictable in a positive sense, meaning reliable, Milanovic said.

The two presidents also highlighted efforts in providing humanitarian aid to migrants who have been left without a roof over their heads following a fire in the Moria refugee camp in Greece.

I have heard that the Croatian government has decided to take in a certain number of displaced persons, which I consider a nice and humane gesture and I support it, Milanovic said.

Steinmeier denied claims that the EU's common policy on migrants had collapsed.

During its EU presidency, Germany will work with the European Commission on promoting the common refugee policy, he said.

Milanovic was the first statesman to be received with military honors after a months-long pause caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

During the day, the Croatian president is scheduled to meet with Wolfgang Schauble, Speaker of the Bundestag. He will end his two-day visit by meeting with Mario Ohoven, head of the German association of small and medium-sized enterprises (BVMW).

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ZAGREB, September 10, 2020 - President Zoran Milanovic said on Thursday that the American offer for multi-purpose fighter jets should be given priority in principle, although price and expert judgement would ultimately be the decisive factors.

"American aircraft should be the first choice. I say that completely openly. There are many reasons for that -- they have donated a lot of equipment to us, they are still donating. I can say this publicly because I am not participating in the procurement," said Milanovic, asked about the best offer for fighter jets after four countries submitted their bids, and the United States are offering new F-16 Block 70 aircraft.

He underscored that both the price and what is obtained for it will be the decisive factors, and the decision would be made by experts and the government.

"If we have decided to get 12 fighter jets, let us get them. But we need 12 new jets or minimally used, not jets used in war, or in Syria," said Milanovic.

He also commented on the commission on the purchase of fighter aircraft, saying that some "characters" first decide on procurement and then, in the second phase, give their opinion on what they had previously decided.

"There is a functional dilemma here," said Milanovic. He especially pointed out the fact that the head of the Security-Intelligence Agency (SOA), Daniel Markic, and Croatian Army Chief of Staff Robert Hranj, who is, he said, a naval admiral, not an expert on aircraft, were members of the commission.

Milanovic said that, for the sake of peace, he would support the work of the commission on the procurement of the jets but that he and his associates would not partake in the decision-making "so they do not give an opinion on something they participated in."

"That would be a conflict of interest," Milanovic said.

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ZAGREB, Sept 9, 2020 - President Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday evening while attending a formal session of the Varazdin County Assembly marking County Day, that renewed division of Croatia into regions would be disintegration.

"What was done in 1993 without a referendum, at the height of the war, when there were more pressing priorities than local government, will not be easily reversed," he said and added that the counties, as the form of administration and "transmission between the central government (and regional government) in a country of just four million people", made more sense than regions.

A renewed division of Croatia into regions would be disintegration, the president said.

He expressed hope that Varazdin County would continue "in the good direction", emphasizing the importance of absorbing EU funding as a measure of success.

PM: A harmonious approach to the development of northern Croatia

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who also attended the ceremony, spoke of the efforts made by the government in its previous term to ensure a more balanced development of the country.

"That's the foundation of our policy which is based on four pillars: continued, steady and open dialogue, functional decentralization, fiscal decentralization, and project cooperation," the prime minister said.

He also recalled government aid to employers and workers, including those in Varazdin County, to help them cope with the crisis caused by the global coronavirus pandemic.

"The government has so far provided HRK 300 million (€40m) for the benefit of workers. Had we not done that, they would probably be in trouble now, many of them would possibly be out of work," Plenkovic said, that 34,000 workers in Varazdin County were covered by the government's aid measures.

He said that Croatia was facing the challenges of recovery and development which required aligning priorities for "a harmonious approach to the development of northern Croatia."

County Prefect Radimir Cacic said that for three years in a row Varazdin County was by far the most successful county in absorbing EU funds in the segment of energy renovation.

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ZAGREB, Sept 6, 2020 - President Zoran Milanovic on Saturday commented on a protest in Zagreb against COVID restrictions, saying that protest is a democracy but that the fact that the protesters stood outside nursing homes was idiocy and disastrous.

He was responding to questions from the press on Rab island if the rally in Zagreb was a festival of democracy, as the participants claimed, and if he considered any restrictions contentious.

"From day one we have been saying that the elderly and the sick are the ones we must care for, not teenagers, my generation. To go outside retirement homes and say that corona is a child's play, which I saw they did, is a disaster... If they are protesting against masks, that's okay."

Speaking of restrictions, he said, "One should be more disciplined than usual, that's the only measure."

Asked what he would tell people who claimed that coronavirus did not exist, Milanovic said ironically that they were "very fine people."

Asked what would happen if the virus entered kindergartens and schools, he said children and youth were the least at risk. "It's time they finally go to school because this has been going on too long."

Milanovic and Slovenian President Borut Pahor were on Rab for the 77th commemoration of the liberation of inmates from the Kampor fascist concentration camp.

"The banality of evil," he said of the WWII camp. "This wasn't a typical extermination camp. This was a camp where you bring Slovenians and Croats because they crossed you for some reason, not just because they are Slovenians and Croats, and leave them to die in a year, you don't feed them. That's the banality of evil. Somebody watched that, those guards, for a year."

Asked if he and Pahor discussed bilateral topics, Milanovic said, "We talk all the time... about the situation in the region, everything that goes on around us. About the right-wing in Europe. I don't mean traditional Christian values but... I don't like the words 'anti-European policy' because that means nothing, but there is a number of leaders and politicians in Europe who see the enemy in everything."

Asked if he and Pahor talked about the reopening of borders given that Slovenia put Croatia on the red list of COVID countries, Milanovic said there was a reason why Slovenia did that.

"The number of daily cases of infections increased because almost a million foreigners arrived in Croatia in July and August so that we could make money. That's not surprising. That's the price we consciously paid both as a state and as a society, and we should finally accept that... Let's not be surprised that almost a million foreigners passed through Croatia, leaving their money here, socializing, forming crowds, and that some got infected. But that's the price of the risk we were all willing to take. Slovenia's reaction was expected, that will change."

Asked if he would ask Pahor that Slovenia apply the regional COVID model towards Croatia, like Germany, Milanovic said, "He doesn't decide on that, just as I don't in Croatia."

He said they often spoke on the phone. "The topics are political, concerning the region, the Balkans, the eastern Balkans."

Asked if he heard the appeals from the ruling HDZ, the minister of defense, the parliament speaker, and the prime minister that he should be more rational with military resources, Milanovic said he did not. "Since I'm the commander in chief, I'll decide what's more rational, if they really said that. We are being very rational."

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ZAGREB, Sept 2, 2020 - Defence Minister Mario Banozic said on Wednesday that according to his information President's visit to Albania was official and dismissed remarks that the ministry was keeping mum about the case.

"From what has been given to me in writing, it was an official trip, and the Conflict of Interest Commission will establish... if it was a private or an official visit," Banozic told the press in Split.

He said the media interpreted his recent statement about the president's visit to Albania flippantly. He explained that he was stating the rights which the president and Armed Forces commander in chief had in using military resources under the Defence Act.

Banozic said that in his statement he pointed to the amount that was paid because the expenses for the use of those resources were covered by the Defence Ministry, not the president's office and that he would always comment on that. He added that it was not true that the ministry was keeping quiet about it.

Banozic said the ministry did not participate in organizing the president's trips and that they were organized by the president's office in cooperation with its services.

He said the Armed Forces received a request, under the Defence Act, based on which he, as a minister, gave his consent for diplomatic or ceremonial purposes.

Banozic said he did not have the legal grounds not to consent to the use of the military and that any questions about this case should be put to the president's office.

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August 7, 2020 – Today, President Zoran Milanović hung out with young members of the Sailing Club Zvir in Križna Luka in the town of Hvar. During his 30-minute visit, he congratulated the members of the club on the excellent results this year, and especially the young hope of the club, Nina Marušić.

The President of the Republic of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, is currently spending the summer at the state residence Vila Kovač on Hvar, where he is staying for two weeks. The President often stayed in Villa Kovač and while he was the Prime Minister. As Katija Vučetić from the City of Hvar confirms, today he visited the town of Hvar and informally socialized with members of the Hvar Sailing Club Zvir.

Sailing Club Zvir was the second-ranked club in Croatia in the year 2019/2020 in the Croatian Cup. In an informal gathering with young members of the club, the President talked about the history and plans of the club.

He congratulated them on the excellent result this year, and especially congratulated the club champion Nina Marušić, winner of the Croatian Cup 2019/2020 in the category of girls under 12 in the "Optimist" class, for the second year in a row. Nina is also the vice-champion in the overall standings for girls. With this result, 11-year-old Nina crowned a three-year series with over 30 medals won in regattas and national competitions. Sailing club Zvir is also the organizer of traditional international New Year's regattas.

Judging by the President's visit, Hvar is, therefore, recognized for its good sports results, especially the Sailing Club Zvir with its members.

July 11, 2020 - Croatian President Zoran Milanović spoke at the opening of Dubrovnik Summer Festival and compared COVID-19 to tooth decay.

President Zoran Milanović said yesterday, and Slobodna Dalmacija reports, that we will have to learn to live with the coronavirus, but that everyone is under a lot of stress caused by a large amount of not-easily-understandable information. He added that especially when watching American and other western TV stations, it appears to him that the whole thing is getting out of control mentally and the people will go crazy in the end, considering how much information they're being fed. And not even those who supply the information completely understand it, let alone the anchors and the audience. He said also that this has become a race in whose study or research will get promoted first, and that it made no sense. 

He added that COVID-19 is something we'll have to learn to live with, and the sooner we're able to accept it as a type of normalcy, the better. He proposed we consider COVID-19 "not like some big disease" (this is a direct translation of his words, ne kao neku veliku bolest), rather like tooth decay. That gets cured, Milanović added. 

ZAGREB, May 14, 2020 - Croatian President Zoran Milanovic will visit the Dobrava Cemetery near Maribor in Slovenia on Friday where he will lay a wreath to post-WWII victims, and later he will meet with his Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor.

President Milanovic is travelling to Tezno where he will lay a wreath at the memorial and grave of post-war victims, which he also did on two occasions when he was prime minister, in 2012 and 2015.

Yugoslav armed forces killed between 15,000 and 20,000 members of the Ustasha armed forces and civilians, mostly Croats, in Tezno in May 1945.

Tezno is one of more than 500 mass grave sites in Slovenia.

Milanovic will not participate in a memorial commemorating the Bleiburg victims which will be held on Saturday in Zagreb's Mirogoj ceremony.

"My stance is known. That was a war crime, quite serious, without going into the context of what occurred, on what date and how that could have been avoided. But victims are one thing and it is something else to commemorate something that is pure politics. Victims are victims and they are commemorated in Tezno," Milanovic said in Jasenovac three weeks ago, when he announced that he would not commemorate the Bleiburg victims.

The Bleiburg commemoration is held in tribute to tens of thousands of Croatian civilians and soldiers of the defeated pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia (NDH) who surrendered to allied forces there in May 1945, but were handed over by British troops to Yugoslav forces. Several thousand were killed in the Bleiburg field in Austria, while others were killed or perished during so-called death marches back to Yugoslavia.

After the wreath-laying ceremony, Milanovic will meet for talks with Pahor, with whom he already met in Slovenia at the end of February which was his first foreign trip after assuming the office of president.

ZAGREB, May 9, 2020 - President Zoran Milanović said on Saturday he was completely neutral ahead of the coming parliamentary election but he would not "go under a quilt and look with a periscope at what is happening" because that was not why he was elected.

The president said he hoped the election would not undermine the pace of coming out of the epidemiological restrictions imposed because of COVID-19, and noted that for the next three to four months, after parliament was dissolved, Croatia would probably be without a government.

"I'm totally neutral. I just found out that a left coalition has been formed. I talk with both the prime minister and people from the opposition, some have expectations, but there is no bias on my part."

Milanović said he did not have the right to say what would suit him more after the election and wondered "if the president should vote in elections at all, as is the case in some countries."

He went on to say that he would not attend a commemoration for Croatian soldiers and civilians killed at the end of World War II at Bleiburg, Austria because "the Bleiburg victims don't exist as such, rather there are victims of showdowns and executions which ensued after the surrender of the Nazi army and their servants."

"Thousands of people were caught in a double bind, mostly in Tezno, Slovenia, and that's where I will lay wreaths."

The president said he objected to Bleiburg being associated with the Way of the Cross, viewing it as "an inappropriate and crude use of the sacrifice Jesus made for humankind."

Milanovic said he would not attend a commemoration organised by the Bleiburg Guard of Honour.

"That has nothing to do with honour. It's led by a man who served time in Germany from 1984 to 1991 for first degree murder. They are not people who should come near us. Neither is the man who was in front of the prime minister in Okučani, who was tried by Croatian courts for killing civilians from a basement. Although convicted, he got away with it due to an error by the state prosecutor's office," the president said.

"Once, they were people in wheelchairs who I can sympathise with. Now they are people whom the Croatian judiciary tried for war crimes, yet they push them one metre in front of the prime minister," he added.

The president said he was dissatisfied that there was no ban on commemorations of war criminals such as Vukasin Šoškočanin in Borovo Selo. "A cemetery is not a private place and you can't put just anything on a tombstone. The state can and must regulate that if it wants to. If it's scared of someone and a constant conflict suits it, then it won't."

"Those who put it there should remove that for the sake of good relations between the Croatian and Serb communities," the president added.

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