Zagreb - The Croatian Parliament on Wednesday unanimously decided on the the appointment of the chair and six members of the Council for Civilian Oversight of the Security and Intelligence Agencies, at the proposal put forward by Domestic Policy and National Security Committee.
The council chair is Kristijan Kotarski, a professor at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb,. The members are Gordan Akrap, vice-rector of the Dr Franjo Tuđman University of Defence and Security; Eduard Briški, an electronic communications inspector at the Croatian Regulatory Authority for Network Industries (HAKOM); Davorin Ivanjek, a lawyer and former member of the Commission on Conflicts of Interest; Aleksandar Maršavelski, a professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Law; Mile Štefanac, secretary of Parliament's Committee on Local and Regional Self-Government; and history teacher Mihael Puljić.
Thus, the council consists of the chair and six members appointed by the Croatian Parliament. Members must be Croatian citizens with a university degree, with the composition required to include at least one law graduate, one political scientist and one graduate electrical engineer. The chair and members may not be part of the senior leadership of any political party. They are appointed for four-year terms and may be reappointed after their mandates expire.
During the debate on Tuesday, MPs of the ruling HDZ endorsed the proposal while independent Josip Jurčević raised his opposition.
Jurčević said one of the proposed members, whom he did not identify, had been expelled from Germany after allegedly attempting to defend two people accused of committing serious crimes.
HDZ lawmaker Ante Deur criticised Jurčević, saying that despite serving on the committee, Jurčević had failed to attend any of the sessions at which 47 candidates were interviewed. He added that Jurčević had had the opportunity to raise objections to any nominee during the committee proceedings on shortlisting the candidates but had not done so.
Deur said all candidates had been thoroughly interviewed and met the required criteria.