Croatian Youth Network Warns that New Youth Councils Act will Restrict Space for Political Participation of Young People

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović received a delegation from the Croatian Youth Network today. The Croatian Youth Network is an alliance of 77 youth associations united in their common interest in developing youth policies at the national, regional, and local levels. The meeting was attended by the Vice President of the Croatian Youth Network Steering Committee, Sara Sušanj, the Secretary General, Josip Miličević, and the Project Manager and Associate, Kristijan Orešković.

The main topic of conversation and the reason for the meeting with the President of the Republic was their dissatisfaction with the amendments to the Youth Councils Act. According to their claims, as a result of the changes to the aforementioned law, the Youth Council of the Republic of Croatia has been given the authority to coordinate the work of all municipal and county councils, thus representing all youth in Croatia. The representatives of the Croatian Youth Network warned that placing this national body above all local youth councils is not in line with the principles of local and regional self-government autonomy.

As a result, the Croatian Youth Network, in collaboration with 44 opposition members in Parliament, submitted a Request for Constitutional Review of the amendments to the Youth Councils Act to the Constitutional Court in February of this year. In the justification for the request, they claim that these amendments violate the principles of regional self-government autonomy and restrict space for the political participation of young people. As an argument, they also highlighted the fact that out of the 20 members of the new Youth Council of the Republic of Croatia, as many as 15 individuals are also members of the Youth of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

Furthermore, they have warned that the new act contradicts the recommendations of the Council of Europe, and the Croatian Youth Network will bring this fact to the attention of the relevant European institutions. They particularly emphasized that the Croatian Youth Network has been internationally recognized as the representative body of young people from Croatia to date, and now the Youth Council of the Republic of Croatia is being imposed as the representative body within international frameworks.

President Milanović was accompanied at the meeting by the Adviser to the President of the Republic for Education Jadranka Žarković and the Adviser to the President of the Republic for Human Rights and Civil Society Melita Mulić.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Filip Glas