The parliamentary Credentials and Privileges Commission recommended by majority vote on Monday that MP Vinko Grgic be stripped of immunity from prosecution at the request of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO).

The EPPO requested that Grgic be stripped of immunity so that he could be investigated on suspicion of bribe-taking and abuse of office, which is the first time the EU has asked that a member of the Croatian parliament be stripped of immunity from prosecution.

The EPPO said that, based on a criminal complaint, there were grounds for suspicion that between October 2018 and February 2021, in his capacity as the mayor of Nova Gradiska, Grgic took bribes and abused his office, defrauding the town of at least HRK 90,600 and the EU Cohesion Fund of at least HRK 427,000, Credentials and Privileges Commission chairman Robert Jankovics said, adding that it was necessary to investigate to see if an indictment should be filed.

The complaint concerns the construction of a HRK 5.4 million worth recycling plant, 4.2 million of which were European funds.

Grgic was stripped of immunity last September at the request of the State Attorney’s Office concerning wrongdoing in the JANAF case.

“The MO is similar. However, the subjects, amount and financiers are different,” Jankovics said, adding that a motion for stripping an MP of immunity must be filed for each case separately.

Only one member of the Commission voted against, Daniel Spajić of the Homeland Movement, because, he said, this matter should not be dealt with by the EPPO but by Croatia.

“If the EU and the European prosecutor must resolve our problems, then we are not independent as a state and we don’t need our judiciary at all,” he said.

Grgic is a former member of the Social Democratic Party and now an independent MP, re-elected as mayor of Nova Gradiska in May.

Parliament will vote on the EPPO request next week.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)