Full Coverage: Croatia

22.12.2005 The 2006 Budget of the City of Rijeka, which is on the today’s agenda of the City Council, proposes reduced cultural budget by 18%. The reduction refers, above all, to financing of cultural programmes, while the funding available for salaries and infrastructural costs of public cultural institutions remains at the same level.

22.12.2005 The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia dismissed the initiative for ruling on constitutionality of the provision of the Law on Customer Protection which bans the retailers from charging a price for shopping bags carrying logos and brand names, since such bags shall be considered advertising material. The initiative was submitted by Kaufland Croatia chain of retail stores.

21.12.2005 According to the study of the Corridor 5C Project, a 350 million Eur international highway connecting Budapest, Osijek, Sarajevo and the Adriatic port of Ploce, published yesterday by the Green Forum, Croatian environmental NGO network, this is an unnecessary project, with negative effects on the environment and will not bring the expected economic and development benefits.

20.12.2005 Representatives of Iskorak, Kontra associations and the Croatian Women Network expressed their disapproval of the composition of the Commission on Health Education of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, and the approach the implementation of sexual education in Croatia.

19.12.2005 Last Thursday, December 15, the Coalition of Youth Association (KUM) organized a debate “Independent Culture and the Youth Centre”, aiming to discuss the current status of independent culture in Split, the problem with space and the use of space resources of the Youth Centre.

19.12.2005 The UN Convention Against Corruption is an important international treaty that establishes new, higher standards in the suppression of corruption and contains a series of provisions designed to determine the standards of good governance, corruption prevention measures and international cooperation.

16.12.2005 During the debate on the Annual Report of Operations of Croatian Radio-Television and its Programming Council in the Croatian Sabor, the representatives of the governing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Democratic Centre (DC), but also the opposition Croatian Rights Party (HSP), strogly criticized the operations and programmes of Croatian TV.

14.12.2005 The Civil Society Forum, an informal initiative that gathers about fifteen NGOs, demanded at the conference for the media held yesterday that the Council for Development of Civil Society be dismissed. CDCS is a body consisting of NGO and state administration representatives, charged with supervision, analysis and evaluation of Budget support for programmes and projects implemented by non-governmental legal entities in Croatia.

13.12.2005 The work on the new Tempus Project EQIBELT: Education Quality Improvement by E-Learning Technology started last week, coordinated by the University Computer Centre – SRCE, at the University in Zagreb.

12.12.2005 According to the Global Corruption Barometer, a tool used by Transparency International to survey public opinion on presence of corruption in certain areas of public life in individual countries, the most corrupt institutions in Croatia are the political parties, the judiciary and the representative bodies.

08.12.2005 On Monday, December 5, the first lifestyle shop of ethically acceptable products was officially opened, made of two shops integrated in the same facility: Superheroes Shop and What do you Read?

07.12.2005 Under the patronage of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Regional Environmental Centre for CEE organized a national workshop on the harmonization of Croatian legislation with the EU Directive on Environmental Liability with regard to the Prevention and Remedying of Environmental Damage.

07.12.2005 The aim of KNEJA work and activities, in addition to environmental protection, is to stimulate the citizens towards quality and sustainable coexistence with the nature, and promote sustainable ideas, activities and solutions in environmental and natural protection.

06.12.2005 The Iskorak and Kontra associations, at the round-table discussion “Introducing Hate Crimes in the Croatian Penal Law”, held yesterday, came forward with proposed changes in the Penal Law, proposing the introduction of “hate crime” as criminal offence.

02.12.2005 The Norwegian Embassy in Croatia donated 120,000 Kuna in support of the “Education to Vocation – Vocation to Employment” Project, which is implemented by the Open Society Institute Croatia and the Association of Roma from Beli Manastir – Baranja.

01.12.2005 The World AIDS Day 2005, December 1, is marked this year under the motto “Stop Aids - Keep the Promise”, sending the message the AIDS will be stopped at all levels – personal, community, organization and governmental.