Croatia Risks Losing EU Cash For Anti-Discrimination Plan

Delays in implementing a promised national plan for fighting discrimination mean Croatia may lose access to the EU's "Competition and Cohesion" program funds, as it is unlikely the plan can be adopted in time, an expert told BIRN.

The plan, specifying how numerous state institutions should implement anti-discrimination measures, should have been passed by the end of 2016. With a new deadline in summer looming, no members of the working group have yet been chosen.

The government's Office for Human Rights and National Minorities' Rights last Friday opened a tender for civil society members of the working group for the 2017-2022 period. It will close on March 1.

Sara Lalic, from the Centre for Peace Studies, an NGO, said she had been a member of the working group in 2014 and 2015 when the national plan for the 2015-2020 period was passed.

"With a few months of very intensive work, the working group could draft some kind of a document … but not a document that has any quality," Lalic told BIRN, recalling that her working group had worked on a draft of the plan for ten months, and explaining that another three months are usually needed for all state institutions implementing the plan to evaluate the document, as well hold as an obligatory public discussion process.

Lalic recalled that the government's Office for Human Rights had decided not to accept the existing plan, arguing that it was "obsolete", thus triggering the whole problem.

The Foreign Ministry also gave a negative review of the existing draft, but refused to specify the reasons, the daily Novi list reported on Friday.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister and Vice Prime Minister Davor Ivo Stier - known for his conservative views -  has assigned Ladislav Ilcic, president of...