Croatia and Croatian News

Croatia

Capital: Zagreb  Official Language:Croatian   Currency :Kuna(HRK)  Population :4,486,881( 2010 Estimate) Independence: Oct 08,1991      Flag of Croatia Croatia declared independence from socialist Yugoslavia in 1991.War broke out in 1991 with Yugoslavia National Army  open attacks on Croatia.At the end of 1991 there was full-scale war in Croatia.The war was between the Serbs, in what had been the Republic of Serbia in the former Yugoslavia, and Croats in the newly independent Croatia. The reasons for the war are quite complex. To greatly simplify, while Croatia and Slovenia  wanted to separate from Yugoslavia, Serbs were largely unwilling to allow this to happen, probably largely for economic reasons. Croatia operated a Semi-Presidential System  until 2000 when it switched to a Parliamentary System The President is the Head of the State directly elected to a five-year term and is limited by the Constitution to a maximum of two terms. The Govt. of Croatia   is headed by the PM who has two deputy prime ministers and 14 ministers in charge of particular sectors of activity. he Parliament of Croatia  is a Unicameral  legislative body (a second chamber, the "House of Counties", which was set up by the Constitution of 1990, was abolished in 2001). The number of the members can vary from 100 to 160; they are all elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. Government's official residence is at Banski dvori.                                                                                          Croatia votes to join EU The referendum held on Sunday Jan 22,2012 on joining the EU next year as the union's 28th member was supported by up to 67%.The solid yes vote was higher than what had been predicted in the opinion polls Ex-PM Ivo Sanader Jailed for Taking Bribes - Nov 20,2012 A court in Croatia has sentenced former Prime Minister (in office from 2003 to 2009) Ivo Sanader to 10 years in prison for taking bribes on Tuesday Nov 20,2012 He was convicted of taking millions of dollars in bribes from a Hungarian energy company and an Austrian bank which he denied wrongdoing at his trial. He was found guilty of accepting a bribe of $12.8m (£8m; 10m euros) from the Hungarian oil company MOL in return for securing it controlling rights in Croatia's state oil company Ina.