President Milanović Attends Ivo Pilar Institute 30th Anniversary Ceremony
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović attended a ceremony held on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences. Extending his congratulations to the researchers on the anniversary of the institute’s founding, President Milanović spoke about the role of the Ivo Pilar Institute as an important research centre.
In his address at the ceremony, President Milanović also recalled the period before the institute was founded, saying that many things have changed since then. “Freedom of expression, the search for the truth, and even of losing our way on that path of searching for the truth, is a normal and everyday matter in Croatia. We are now re-evolving as a dynamic, Western society in which the state has not been hijacked in the way that it has been hijacked in some other countries by a part of the clique. (We are) a country that has its problems and systemic disorders that are older than we are, that are difficult to change. The roles have been divided, everyone is going their own way and reversing this is difficult,” said the President.
President Milanović mentioned the importance of European funds. “I want you – and this is a bit harder in the social disciplines – to be hunters and interceptors of European money and funds. The state can finance you a little more and I believe that it can, must and wants to do so, but not completely,” he said. The President highlighted the disparity between the financing of higher education and research in Croatia and the Netherlands, emphasizing that the disparities are too great. “We are not that much poorer nor are they that much wealthier than us, to justify the big difference in the amounts spent on financing public universities – even if one takes into account that they are more skilled at extracting money from the system they came up with, which we have joined thirty years later. It is a system designed primarily for them,” said President Milanović.
“That’s the European Union. It’s good, but it was created with a clear goal and idea that the gap between those roles that have long been divided remains the same,” said President Milanović, adding that the standards between European countries are not equal. “Our task is to look after ourselves the best we can, and our interests, in the given circumstances and roles, which have long been divided. Because, without money there is nothing,” President Milanović concluded.
Also addressing the event apart from President Milanović were the President of the Board of Directors of the Ivo Pilar Institute Dr. Nevio Šetić and the Minister of Science and Education Dr. Radovan Fuchs, who was also the envoy of the Prime Minister. A presentation about the Ivo Pilar Institute was held by its Director Dr. Željko Holjevac.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Filip Glas