Office of the President Writes to State Judicial Council
Stemming from the fact that the President of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanović, in accordance with his constitutional duty, is responsible for ensuring the regular and balanced functioning and stability of state authority and in this context seeks to ensure conditions for an improved and more efficient functioning of the judiciary, as well as the smooth functioning of the State Electoral Commission, the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia has sent today, on 25 March 2021, a letter to the State Judicial Council, in which he informs the Council that the President of the Republic will not nominate any of the candidates who have applied for President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia and in which he proposes to the State Judicial Council that the public call be published again as soon as possible.
The letter sent by the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia to the State Judicial Council follows in this press release and in attachment:
“Dear President of the State Judicial Council,
In your letter dated 18 February 2021, you have sent to the President of the Republic “applications of candidates who have applied to the public call of the State Judicial Council.”
At the instruction and with authorization of the President of the Republic, I inform you of the following:
1. As he has publicly announced on several occasions, the President of the Republic will not nominate any of the persons, whose applications you submitted with your letter of 18 February 2021, for President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia.
2. The Courts Act, based on which the State Judicial Council acts, in no way regulates the communication of the President of the Republic with the State Judicial Council. Moreover, the Courts Act does not regulate the situation in which the President of the Republic does not want to nominate any of the candidates who applied, nor does it regulate the principle of repeating a public call.
3. Paragraph 2, Article 94 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia obliges the President of the Republic to “ensure the regular and balanced functioning and stability of state authority.” Therefore, in seeking to enable the functioning of the judiciary and keeping in mind that the President of the Supreme Court is also the ex officio President of the State Electoral Commission, the President of the Republic recommends to the State Judicial Council to:
a) Repeat the public call for President of the Supreme Court as soon as possible;
b) Shorten the duration of the call to 15 days, given that the public call has already been published once.
With this letter, the President of the Republic does not intend to in any way influence the jurisdiction of the State Judicial Council that is determined by the Constitution and the Law. In the messy and chaotic situation created by the amendments to the Courts Act, the President of the Republic seeks to contribute to the improved and more efficient functioning of the judiciary and support the functioning of the State Electoral Commission after the term of the current President of the Supreme Court expires.
Respectfully yours,
Orsat Miljenić, Ph. D.
Head of the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia”