The Juncker plan for the recovery of the European economy and the future of the Europe 2020 Strategy, currently facing revision, were the issues covered at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) plenary session, held in Brussels on February 18 and 19. The open question remains how much the European Commission is committed to…
Month: February 2015
Who wants to join the Constitutional Court (apart from Mladen Bajić)?
Former three-time State Attorney General Mladen Bajić, Constitutional expert and external Committee on the Constitution member Sanja Barić, former Children’s Ombudsman Mila Jelavić, the judge convicting Ivo Sanader and the Croatian Democratic Union Ivana Čalić, former Constitutional Court Justice Nevenka Šernhorst, Municipal Court in Zagreb Justice Zorka Čačić Zagrajski, High Misdemeanour Court Justice Antonija Kovačić,…
Open data as the fuel for democracy, raw materials for economic growth
Can you imagine public websites providing citizens with the data on every outlay by every ministry, state office or agency, who authorized what payment, when staff salaries were paid and what they amounted to, or how official credit cards are charged? Can Croatia look up to Great Britain as an often-cited exemplary of data openness…
Parliament adopts amendments to election law
The majority in parliament on Friday adopted an amended law on the election of MPs that introduces preferential voting at parliamentary elections too. The opposition did not vote on the bill and walked out of parliament because the sponsor, the ruling Social Democratic Party, at the last moment, when voting had already commenced, changed its…
NGOs urge banning persons convicted of gravest crimes from running in elections
Leaders of nongovernmental organisations gathered in the civil society organisation “All of us for a Croatia of all of us” on Thursday commented on reports that the ruling Social Democratic Party (SDP) would amend electoral legislation to prevent from running in parliamentary elections persons sentenced to prison sentences of more than six months until the…
Ruling coalition without agreement on election bill
An attempt by the ruling coalition parties to come up with a joint proposal for new rules in parliamentary elections has definitely fallen through so the senior partner in the coalition, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), on Wednesday sent its own bill of amendments to the law on parliamentary elections. “SDP has sent into procedure…