ZAGREB, March 20, 2018 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday that the agenda of his cabinet this week would most probably include the item on ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence alongside with an accompanying interpretative declaration.
Concerning the announcement of the opposition Social Democrat Party (SDP) that its lawmakers would not vote for the ratification if the convention was accompanied by the declaration, Plenković said he would like to see this to happen, as such developments would show petty politicking on behalf of the opposition.
“Currently, we are hammering out the interpretative declaration, and as far as the government’s position, that document is definitely going to be put forward to the government’s agenda. We want to fine tune its contents with our partners. I strive for as much consensus as possible on the document aimed primarily at the prevention of violence against women and prevention of domestic violence, and for removing fears of those who have certain problems in connection with the wording,” Plenković told reporters at a business conference in Zagreb on Tuesday morning.
Asked whether the convention could be included in the cabinet’s meeting this week, the premier answered, “I think so. We are having some meetings today to fine tune the text, and we are waiting for opinions of some departments.” We have analysed all the aspects, we have consulted legal experts of the Council of Europe, Plenković said adding that no hidden agenda could be seen in the Convention.
Asked whether the resistance from the Catholic Church and some NGOs and a part of Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) members to the convention could prevent the ratification, Plenković said that he believed that the parliamentary discussion on the matter would serve as an opportunity for the exchange of substantiated arguments. He recalled that Croatian experts had also been included in the drafting of the Istanbul Convention.
