Ex-Croatian prime minister pleads 'not guilty' in corruption trial

deutsche welle
CRIME

10.11.2011
Croatia's former prime minister has denied accepting bribes from a Hungarian oil company as his corruption trial resumed in Zagreb. Sanader already stands accused of receiving bribes from an Austrian bank.

Former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader pleaded not guilty to further corruption charges on Thursday as his trial continued in the Croatian capital, Zagreb.

Sanader said he denied "categorically and with indignation" accepting a bribe worth 10 million euros ($13.63 million) from the Hungarian oil company MOL. The latest charges were added to an existing corruption case against the 58-year-old which began last week....more...
read more: deutsche welle
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15523316,00.html

Cock a doodle do?

the economist
Nov 6th 2011, 12:01 by T.J.

AN EXTRAORDINARY week or so in Croatia. Parliament has been dissolved and on October 31st President Ivo Josipovic called elections for December 4th. It was announced that ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is being investigated for corruption. Ivo Sanader, the former head of the HDZ and prime minister went on trial and independent Croatia’s first interior minister was arrested on charges of murders allegedly committed in 1945. (He denies all wrongdoing)....more....
read more: the economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/11/croatia

Ex- Yu States Agree to Divide Assets Worth $65m

balkan insight
21 SEP 2011 / 16:26

An agreement has been reached in Sarajevo on the division of diplomatic properties of the former socialist Yugoslavia.

Vecernje Novosti

The handover of 44 properties in OECD countries is due to be completed by next August.


Two decades after the violent collapse of Yugoslavia, the former republics are finally accelerating the process of dividing diplomatic property....more...
read more : balkan insight
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serbia-gains-ex-yu-assets-worth-26-million

Croatian PM Receives EU Accession Treaty

balkan insight
21 SEP 2011 / 09:12

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk officially delivered Croatia's EU accession treaty text to the head of the Croatian government, prime minister Jadranka Kosor, at a ceremony in Zagreb on the weekend.

Sofia Echo

"The great effort of the Croatians, and your government will pay off in the future. I say this as a Pole, who, like my compatriots, has been benefiting for years from the fact that Europe is united, and we are a part of it," Tusk said after the ceremony, as quoted by the Polish EU presidency website....more...
read more: balkan insight
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatian-pm-receives-eu-accession-treaty

Cacic: 'I have been telling the truth throughout this process'

tportal.hr
CAR ACCIDENT HEARING

20.09.2011 18:46

Author: Radio.net
The head of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), Radimir Cacic, issued a statement on Tuesday after attending the first hearing before a local court in Kaposvar, Hungary, for a fatal traffic accident he had caused last year....more...
read more: tportal.hr
http://daily.tportal.hr/149517/Cacic-I-have-been-telling-the-truth-throughout-this-process.html

FM warns against bias in reporting about EU accession treaty

tportal.hr
ACCESSION TREATY
20.09.2011 15:25

Author: Radio.net
Croatia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic said in Zagreb on Tuesday that "the superficial and ill-intended analyses and politicking" by some media about Croatia's EU accession was intolerable....more..
read more: tportal.hr
http://daily.tportal.hr/149475/Minister-warns-against-bias-in-reporting-about-EU-accession-treaty.html

Kosor comments on publishing of EU accession treaty

tportal.hr
ACCESSION TREATY
20.09.2011 14:46

Author: Radio.net
Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said on Tuesday that the government was interested in making public as soon as possible Croatia's EU accession treaty, dismissing claims by a Croatian daily that the treaty envisaged the restriction of the rights of Homeland War veterans...more...
read more: tportal.hr
http://daily.tportal.hr/149464/Kosor-on-publishing-of-EU-accession-treaty-veterans-rights.html

HSK calls on citizens to join in rally of support for Gotovina and Markac

tportal.hr
PROTEST RALLY
20.09.2011 13:54

Author: Radio.net
The Croatian World Congress (HSK) on Tuesday called on Croatians to join, on Saturday, a protest to be held in The Hague against the trial court verdict in the case of Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, and the Hague tribunal's description of the 1995 Croatian army and police operation "Storm" as a joint criminal enterprise....more...
read more: tportal.hr
http://daily.tportal.hr/149446/HSK-calls-on-citizens-to-join-in-rally-of-support-for-Gotovina-and-Markac.html

Josipovic meets Croat emigrants living in New York

tportal.hr
PRESIDENT IN NY
20.09.2011 10:46

Author: Radio.net
Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said at a meeting with Croatian emigrants in New York on Monday evening local time that the good news was that Croatia had completed its EU entry talks, even though that did not mean the end of reforms, while less pleasant news was that the economic situation in the country was not good....more...
read more: tportal.hr
http://daily.tportal.hr/149386/Josipovic-meets-Croat-emigrants-living-in-New-York.html

Croatian Politician Relives Tragic Car Accident

balkan insight
20 SEP 2011 / 16:40

Croatian politician Radimir Cacic, one of the heads of Croatia’s opposition coalition, tried on Tuesday to explain the circumstances of a car accident in Hungary when two persons died in January last year.

Croatian Times

"I wasn't driving too fast. Visibility was bad," the president of the Croatian People's Party (HNS) Radimir Cacic said at the trial in the Municipal Court in the Hungarian town of Macala....more...
read more: balkan insight
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/croatian-politician-describes-tragic-car-accident

Croatia: another step closer to the EU

se times
20/09/2011

Even though the country now has a draft of its EU accession treaty, reforms must continue.
By Natasa Radic for Southeast European Times in Zagreb -- 20/09/11
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived in Zagreb on Saturday (September 17th) to bring the draft of the EU accession treaty to Croatia. The document will be signed in December, opening the way for Croatia to become a full EU member in 2013....more...
read more: se times
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2011/09/20/feature-02

From Zagreb with Love: On the Bounded Rationality of Euroskepticism and Europhilia in Croatia

balkan analysis
September 12, 2011

By Maja Šoštarić
When asked whether they trust European Union institutions, only 7% of Croats respond that they have a lot of confidence, while a meager 35% would admit that they trust the EU to some extent, reported the Gallup Balkan Monitor 2010. By the same token, as the Eurobarometer 74 reveals, only 9% of Croats would answer positively if asked whether they trust their own government. Moreover, only 9% have confidence in the national parliament, only one-fifth trust the judiciary, and a miserly 5% find the political parties in Croatia trustworthy....more...
read more: balkan analysis
http://www.balkanalysis.com/croatia/2011/09/12/from-zagreb-with-love-on-the-bounded-rationality-of-euroskepticism-and-europhilia-in-croatia/

Croatian ex-Premier Ivo Sanader charged with corruption

bbc news
31 August 2011, Last updated 16:55 GMT
The authorities in Croatia have charged former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader with corruption over a loan he negotiated in 1995.

He is alleged to have received a kickback worth nearly $695,000 (£425,000; 480,000 euros) for the loan from the Austrian bank Hypo.

He is said to have facilitated Hypo's entry into the Croatian market....more...
read more: bbc news
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14733763

Vukovar suspect Goran Hadzic pleads not guilty

bbc news
24 August 2011, Last updated at 13:53 GMT
Goran Hadzic, the last major war crimes suspect sought by The Hague, has pleaded not guilty to crimes at Vukovar during the Croatian conflict.

The former commander of Serb rebel forces during the 1991-95 war is charged with 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity....more...
read more: bbc news
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14652784

Back to the Balkans again

the economist
Roundup in the Balkans
Sep 9th 2011, 14:20 by T.J.

BELGRADE
THE first serious working week after the summer holidays has already produced a wealth of stories here in the western Balkans. Some are more serious than others, unless of course you live here, when they are all deadly serious. Here is a roundup of some of them.

Outside the old Yugoslav Federal Parliament building in the Serbian capital they are rolling up the red carpet which had been unrolled to welcome delegates to the 50th birthday bash of the Non-Aligned Movement, which I have written about here. Serbia, which hosted the gathering, is not a member, but never mind that. It finds it useful to lobby over the Kosovo issue and for business....more...
read more: the economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2011/09/roundup-balkans

Serb war crimes suspect Goran Hadzic pleads not guilty

telegraph
Serbia
The wartime leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia, Goran Hadzic pleads not guilty to the murder of hundreds of Croats in one of the first ethnic cleansing campaigns of the Balkan conflicts.
5:29PM BST 24 Aug 2011

At The Hague's UN Yugoslav war crimes tribunal Hadzic was charged with 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. They include the extermination, torture, murder and wilful killing of hundreds of Croat and other non-Serb civilians....more...
read more: telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/serbia/8720684/Serb-war-crimes-suspect-Goran-Hadzic-pleads-not-guilty.html

Hadzic Pleads Not Guilty To War Crimes

radio free europe
August 24, 2011

Former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic pleaded not guilty today to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He made the not guilty plea before judge Guy Delvoie of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague....more...
read more: radio free europe
http://www.rferl.org/content/hadzic_war_crimes/24306887.html

Merkel campaigns for regional stability in Croatia, Serbia

deutsche welle
BALKANS

23.08.2011
During a visit to Croatia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the country as an economic and political role model for nations in the politically troubled Balkan region. On Tuesday, she continues her tour in Serbia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has praised Croatia as a role model for the politically troubled Balkan region and called on Zagreb to play a larger role in helping to resolve the ongoing border dispute between Serbia and Kosovo and ethnic tensions in Bosnia....more...
read more: deutsche welle
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15336008,00.html

Merkel's tour of Croatia and Serbia to focus on economic ties

deutsche welle

BALKANS

22.08.2011
Belgrade and Zagreb are key partners for Germany, even if ties are sometimes complex. Chancellor Angela Merkel has several goals for her trip to Croatia and Serbia, but what do her hosts want and expect from her?

Before Chancellor Angela Merkel's departure for Croatia and Serbia on Monday, her office announced that international, bilateral and trade ties would dominate the agenda. Government sources also acknowledged, however, that the touchiest topic in Belgrade would be Kosovo's claim to independence, recognized by Germany but not by Serbia....more...
read more: deutsche welle
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15334175,00.html

Merkel Set To Arrive In Croatia For Two-Day Balkan Trip

radio free europe

August 22, 2011

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is arriving in Croatia on August 22 for the start of a two-day Balkan visit.
She will meet top Croatian leaders today and is set to visit Serbia on August 23....more...
read more: radio free europe
http://www.rferl.org/content/merkel_set_to_arrive_in_croatia_for_two_day_balkan_trip/24304287.html