Parliament confirms the introduction of the order named after first Croatian president

Zagreb - The Croatian Parliament on Friday amended, with 75 votes in favour and 27 votes against, the Decorations and Awards Act to introduce a new decoration - the Grand Order of President of the Republic Franjo Tuđman with Sash and Morning Star.

The order named after Tuđman is an addition to the four highest national decorations named after Croatian kings Tomislav, Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir and Queen Jelena.

The decoration would be awarded every year on the anniversary of Tuđman's death, 10 December, for the promotion of Croatian state and national interests in the country and abroad.

The Croatian Parliament also adopted with a majority vote a report on a meeting of the European Council held on October 17-18 in Brussels, at which European leaders discussed the EU's new institutional framework, the enlargement process, Brexit, the EU's new seven-year budget, climate change and Turkey.

At the meeting, the European Council did not make a decision to launch accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania despite getting the green light from the European Commission because of opposition from France, the Netherlands and Denmark.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said earlier that as the EU chair in the first half of next year, Croatia would advocate the continuation of the EU membership journey of Southeast European countries because he believed that it was important for their transformation and for regional peace and stability.