On Wednesday, 24 March 2021 the President of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanovi\u0107 sent a letter to all members of the Croatian Parliament urging the Parliament to fulfil its constitutional duty and to state its position on his nominee for the President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President\u2019s letter reads as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLadies and gentlemen, dear members of the Croatian Parliament,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Article 119 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia stipulates that the President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia is elected by the Croatian Parliament at the proposal of the President of the Republic of Croatia. In fulfilling this constitutional obligation, on 8 March 2021 I submitted the proposal for the election of the President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia. The proposal was drafted in the same way, using the same documentation (biography) that was submitted during all previous elections of the President of the Supreme Court, based upon which the Croatian Parliament elected the previous presidents of the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of the Croatian Parliament discussing and deciding on my proposal, as required by the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament addressed me in a letter dated 9 March 2021, in which he called on me to submit some documents, \u201cotherwise the draft motion will be considered not to have been submitted to the Parliament.\u201d Neither the Constitution nor the Courts Act stipulate that the President of the Republic must submit any documentation to the Croatian Parliament during the election process of the Supreme Court President, except for the proposal for appointing a particular person as President of the Supreme Court. I remind you that both the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia (Article 119) and the Courts Act (Article 44) stipulate that \u201cThe President of the Supreme Court is elected by the Croatian Parliament at the proposal of the President of the Republic, with prior opinion given at the general session of the Supreme Court and the competent committee of the Croatian Parliament.\u201d Therefore, nowhere from these provisions does it arise that the President of the Republic should submit to the Croatian Parliament any documents that the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament is referring to, and even less does it arise what kind of documents he should submit. Moreover, the contentious Article 44a of the Courts Act, to which the Speaker of Parliament refers, and which I believe is contrary to the Constitution, neither makes any mention of the obligation on the part of the President of the Republic to submit any documents nor does it specify the type of the documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paragraph 2, Article 94 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia obliges me as President of the Republic to \u201censure the regular and balanced functioning and stability of state authority.\u201d Because the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament is wilfully preventing the Croatian Parliament from performing its constitutional task, which is electing the President of the Supreme Court following a proposal by the President of the Republic, I decided to address the Croatian Parliament and each one of you who are members of Parliament, directly. It is the right and obligation of the President of the Republic to nominate a particular person to serve as President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia, and it is the right of the Croatian Parliament to elect that person or not. The Speaker of the Croatian Parliament does not have the right to block a debate and vote on the President\u2019s nomination. Otherwise, the proposal of the President of the Republic is not decided on by the Croatian Parliament, as prescribed by the Constitution and the Courts Act, but by its Speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therefore, as I have already said, I stand by my proposal that Zlata \u0110ur\u0111evi\u0107 be elected Supreme Court President, which was submitted in line with the Constitution and the Courts Act. I would like to recall that neither the Constitution nor the Courts Act authorise the Speaker of Parliament to dispose of the President\u2019s motion. The Parliament is the only body that has the authority to decide on the motion, including on whether it is constitutionally and legally founded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ladies and gentlemen, dear members of the Croatian Parliament,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I call on the Parliament to fulfil its constitutional duty and state its position on my nominee for the President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Respectfully yours,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zoran Milanovi\u0107\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Wednesday, 24 March 2021 the President of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanovi\u0107 sent a letter to all members of the Croatian Parliament urging the Parliament to fulfil its constitutional duty and to state its position on his nominee for the President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":8339,"template":"","news-cat":[12],"class_list":["post-8341","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-cat-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n