A few Opposition MPs on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction with a draft bill on international development cooperation and humanitarian aid as its wording makes no mention of the obligation that annual reports on this topic should be presented also to the Croatian parliament.

Such annual reports will be forwarded to the government and to the agencies of the European Union, so why shouldn’t it be sent to the parliament, parliamentary deputies of the DP party, Most party, SDP, Social Democrats, and Mozemo! said during today’s debate on the new bill.

Bojan Glavasevic of the Mozemo! party said that the EU had not yet become a federal union and that “it is still more important what is being discussed in Croatia than in Brussels or Strasbourg.”

Domagoj Hajdukovic of the Social Democrats said that the absence of the obligation of presenting such reports to the national parliament reduces transparency.

Lawmakers from both the ruling coalition and the Opposition expressed satisfaction that Croatia has grown from a country-recipient of international aid to a country that provides such aid.

They advocated the continuation of support to the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the ethnic Croat minority in Serbia and other countries.

Step towards a Croatian development agency

Presenting the report, the government’s representative Zdenko Lucic said that the new law could be perceived as a step towards the establishment of a Croatian development agency.

“We are thinking about that. We have agreed with the OECD on cooperation and on analysing our legislative framework, and compare it to the best practices in the world so as to see what is the best option,” Lucic said when answering a question asked by HDZ MP Davor Ivo Stier, who noted that in Bosnia and Herzegovina the Turkish development agency is very active and that such a Croatian agency could also have a role in that area.