ZAGREB, January 1, 2020 – During the new 2020, the Croatian government plans to step up the fight against migrant smuggling, raise the minimum wage, and introduce a national pension allowance, and those are some of the steps and measures about which Hina has prepared a brief overview.
The Interior Ministry plans to continue its activities concerning Croatia’s bid to be admitted to the Schengen Area and to establish a visa-free regime with the United States of America by the end of 2020.
At the end of 2019, a year in which Croatia met all the technical requirements to enter the Schengen Area, the Interior Ministry announced that in 2020 it would continue communicating with the relevant services in the European Commission and Council of the European Union.
In 2020 the ministry will continue to upgrade the system for the efficient prevention of people smuggling and irregular migrations and cross-border crime.
The authorities plan to continue improving working conditions for police officers, which includes enhancement of their material rights and procurement of equipment, education and further training.
The ministry promises that it will exert maximum effort with regard to criminal investigations of war crimes in identifying perpetrators and bringing them to trial.
In 2020, several courses will be introduced including a comprehensive course for reserve police officers, a course in Civil Protection, and a college course in criminology and public security.
Amendments are planned for the Law on Personal Identification Cards and on January 1 the Law on Croatian Citizenship enters into force which facilitates procedures for Croatian descendants to obtain citizenship abroad.
The ministry also intends to sponsor a bill on foreigners which will regulate labour relations based on a model that will be more favourable for employers.
The Ministry of Justice has announced that in 2020 it will enable electronic communication with the courts with regard to court proceedings.
After legal steps have been taken, the ministry will in 2020 publicly release Declarations of Assets for judicial officials.
The Ministry of Labour and Pension System plans to increase the minimum wage by 8.33% which will then in 2020 amount to a gross amount of 4,062.51 kuna or a net value of 3,250 kuna.
The ministry also plans to introduce a national pension for socially vulnerable elderly citizens who are not eligible for a pension based on their working life or contributions to the pension fund. This refers to citizens who do not have a working life of more than the minimum of 15 years and who are over 65 years of age and have no other source of income.
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