Following the Constitutional Court’s warning that a week-long discussion on draft constitutional amendments was unacceptably brief, the parliamentary Committee on the Constitution on Friday extended the discussion for another week. Under the Public Consultation Code, a fortnight is a minimum required for public discussions on laws. Goran Beus Richembergh of the ruling coalition’s Croatian People’s…
Tag: Parliament
Constitutional changes – what will they bring?
The chair of the parliamentary Constitution Committee, Pedja Grbin, would not comment on Tuesday’s decision by the Constitutional Court that a six-day public discussion on constitutional changes was unacceptably short and that the procedure for amending the Constitution was in contravention of the constitutional provision on the rule of law as the highest value of…
Constitutional Court says referendum has immediate legal effect
The Constitutional Court issued a warning on Monday saying that a referendum to initiate constitutional changes at the request of the “In the Name of the Family” initiative would have immediate legal effect if a majority of citizens said ‘yes’ to the referendum question, which is contrary to intentions for parliament to subsequently decide on…
Ombudswoman tells parliament citizens don’t trust judiciary
Human Rights Ombudswoman Lora Vidovic said on Thursday that citizens do not trust the judiciary, saying that the government should work on strengthening that trust “In complaints we received in 2012, citizens claim that the judiciary is not transparent, that it is inefficient and corrupt and this perception must be changed,” Vidovic said in parliament…
European Affairs Committee holds first session
The Croatian Parliament’s European Affairs Committee, which was inaugurated last week, held its first session on Wednesday at which the head of the office of the Lithuanian Embassy in Zagreb, Deividas Stankevicius, presented the priorities of Lithuania’s EU presidency. Lithuania took over the EU’s six-month rotating presidency on 1 July, the day when Croatia entered…
Croatian parliament enacts 145 laws since April
The Croatian Parliament was in session for 39 days or 266 hours from April to mid-July, discussing 197 items and enacting 145 laws, statistics presented to the press show. MPs spent 1.3 hours on average discussing each item on the agenda, and of the 145 laws adopted, as many as 81 were adopted unanimously.…