Decisions, Summary, Requests and Recommendations from First Legislative Council Meeting of the

Croatian Diaspora

Held in Porec 21-23 June, 2002.

Council Themes

Fundamental Questions of the Croatian Diaspora

Theme Leaders

Prof. Dr. Zvonimir Baletić - Croatia

Prof. Dr. Ante Laušić – Croatia

Vesna Jelinek Dr. iur – Switzerland

Multinational Croatian Relations

Theme Leader Mr. Sc. Mario Viscovich – USA

Material provided by Mr. John Kraljić – USA

Croatian Exports and our Identity in the World

Theme Leader Niko Šoljak prof. – Croatia

Material provided by Dennis Valcich – Australia

Art by Vlado Franjević – Switzerland

Globalization Process in Croatia

Theme Leader Dr. Srđan Bill – Germanz

Prof. Dr. Zvonimir Baletić – Croatia

Prof. Dr. Sc. Juraj Plenković – Croatia

Material provided by Dr. Rudi Tomić – Canada

Information as a Function in the Development of Croatia

Theme Leader Radovan Smokvina dipl. Ing. – Switzerland

Prof. Marijan Karabin – Switz

Material provided by

Prof. Dipl. Mario Plenković – Croatia

Brljević Branko iur. – Croatia

Mr. sc. Jadranka Matešić – USA

Croatian Diaspora Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Theme Leader Dr. Peter Kružić – Germany

Dr. Bedeković Vladimir – Croatia

Material provided by Ante-Toni Ćurković dipl. ing. – Germany

7.Proposals and Requests from the Diaspora

Theme Leader Niko Šoljak prof. – Croatia

Dr. Peter Kružić - Germany

Prerequisites for protecting the sovereignty of Croatia and recognized national, cultural and the identity of the Croatian people

Theme Leader Prof. Marijan Karabin – Switzerland

Niko Šoljak prof. – Croatia

Club Organization and Infrastructure

Theme Leader Niko Šoljak prof. – Croatia

Mr. Mario Viscovich – USA

Fundamental Questions of the Croatian Diaspora

Decision to continue using the word Diaspora as part of the terminology of the Club and wherever possible at home to also use the description - Croatians outside our national borders. This description in a way details the specifics of the Croatian Diaspora however is difficult to use and translate into different languages.

Multinational Croatian Relations

In global relations the Croatian Diaspora must engage via Embassies, Consulates, Representatives, Missions and other Croatian Institutions in the World and help them in their work. Croatian diplomats must find ways to contact the Diaspora and together find ways to affirm Croatia and the Croatian people. This must be done with the intention of protecting and assuring the rights of Croatia and the Croatian people in multinational arenas, which is our right as a nation.

In every Croatian Embassy and Consulate in the world there should be at least one young capable person from the Diaspora who understands the way of life, work and people in that country, who could assist the Embassador, Consul or other Croatian representatives to create contacts that will assist them in a quantifiable way to present the interests of Croatia and its people wherever they may be.

Croatian Exports and our identity in the World

As a nation, Croatia has to organize itself so that with recognizable exports it can participate in world trade. We have to export quality and in quantity so as to hold the quality and quantity stable so that we can hold our own in the world and from the beginning assure future exports and a stable market.

In cultural and sports arena we need to make contacts and programs so that every month something is manifested in Croatia which will be interesting, especially to our Croatian youth in the Diaspora.

By way of print, radio and TV bring forth available information to Croatian people wherever they may live, in Croatia or in the world.

Through club committees organize, realize and single out instances of business, culture, sports, knowledge and other programs whose messages bring closer and offer a better future for Croatians everywhere.

Globalization Process in Croatia

Croatia is a small country that has rich natural resources, and Croatians as workers are regarded as very hardworking and industrious wherever they live and work in the world. Our most outstanding resource is the Adriatic Sea, its natural coastline and islands and rich selection of fresh waters, rivers and lakes.

Those of Croatian origin, who are in every country in the world, that is a large intellectual and material capacity that can contribute and create wonders in Croatia creating a true heaven on earth. The emotional ties are so strong that if they could have similar work and lifestyle that they have in the countries that they now live and work, they would use all their intellectual and material capacity to the benefit of Croatia and its people.

(Unfortunately those conditions doe not exist in Croatia today.)

In the process of globalization our nation is losing some its sovereignty. Small national who are not capable of choosing and fighting for its rightful place among the multinational groups will lose its economy, rights, and national identify and as a nation simply swallowed.

Croatia with its people, with the strength and capacity that is available (namely, the intellectual and material worth of its Diaspora) has a chance to protect the sovereignty of Croatia, and its identity as a people.

Now is the time, and potentially the last opportunity, that all the potential that Croatia and its people have to be galvanized and put to use for the prosperity of Croatia and its people.

We can only do this if everyone everywhere, in every place in the world devotes a part of themselves to Croatia and its people. In order to do this and to ensure everyone is responsible, its necessary to find some common ground, a consensus amongst Croatian people. We have to publicly inform on those that work against the interest of the Croatian people and remove them from all national institutions. Only by doing this will the road to work, order and moral, be paved. Moral worthiness will be the new measure of a person’s worth.

Information as a Function in the Development of Croatia

Information and communication is one of the most important prerequisite for the development of a nation as a whole.

The Diaspora finds itself within its own type of information blockade because they do not get to the information. In as much as they even get information they often get more misinformation then real information.

Diaspora has to have its own magazine/newspaper and its own portal. It has to have its own radio and television program in Croatian (and English at least) and that information has to be able to reach all Croatians in the world.

The information and how it is provided must get better. People have to have information and of the type that will allow them to know the truth about all points of life and work in Croatia and in the world.

The Croatian government has to ensure the rights, help create the contacts with existing information centers thereby allowing the Club to pull together information from all continents. Together with Croatians around the world create an information net (portal) and make that information available to whoever wants to be informed. Without truthful, timely and available information there is no forward movement, no togetherness and no future.

Croatian Diaspora Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Today's Diaspora is not what is was yesterday. Her culture and material place is very different so that we can today say that our Diaspora has moved from the average blue collar class with little education to white collar and managerial classes with university educations. Today, young people are leaving Croatia who are educated and capable and whose youth, energy and knowledge bring security to countries with stable democracies with their knowledge and capabilities, and security to themselves that they can provide their families with a decent life.

The Croatian people must find a way how to keep those capable experts in Croatia to create knowledge and jobs and in other ways further themselves in Croatia where they can find the security and types of conditions as elsewhere in the world.

The youth are those who with their capabilities will introduce world measurments in man's worth and his work. The youth are those who will look after and those that are capable of looking after Croatia for themselves and their descendents. We have to find a way how to give capable descendents of Croatian nationality, and we have them in Croatia and around the world, the opportunities to take their own future in their own hands and make Croatia a country in which they will live, a country that works, where rules and government laws hold, where humanism and social laws protect all Croatian members.

The Diaspora has the knowledge, expertise, money and the will. The Croatian Government must find ways how to bring that huge potential to work for Croatia and its people. The Diaspora is holding out its hand to the Croatian Government, and the Croatian Government must take that hand firmly and together find the way for a better tomorrow for all and not only for those who are in power/government.

Proposals and Requests from the Diaspora

To create and pass a law on the Diaspora similar to that of Ireland and Israel.
To create a Ministry for the Diaspora.
That the Diaspora has 3 representatives in Hrvatska Radio Televizija (HRT).
That all sales of national resources be put on hold until new laws on privatization are put in place.
That land on the coastline and other areas for projects not be sold but leased to owners of the projects.
To create and pass a law for criminals (if criminal act committed during the privatization of Croatian companies) that does not expire.
That the Diaspora be given 12 representatives in the Croatian Parliament or at least 10% of the available seats.
To bring in an election law that will allow the citiziens of Croatia to pick their own representatives in Parliament and other government institutions.
To reverse the law to stop Child endowment for students older than 19 years.
That the Government and Parliament pass law on the number of territorial election counties in Croatia, so that the number of county seats are reduced to 4, or 5 if Zagreb as a whole is regarded as a single country seat. Create criteria such that if an area wants to have status of a district it must have a Court, National register, Territorial-District Accounting and Urban Planning.

Other needs of the people should be met through city organizations.

Reduce court taxes in Croatia by 90%.
To create and pass a law allowing Croatian citizens and their descendents, regardless of citizenship, to buy real estate in Croatia with any limiting factors.
To secure the same rights for Croatians who live outside Croatia as that which Croatia provides for people in the Republic of Croatia (consistenly use principles of reciprocity).
That the Government finds a way or drives other countries and their agencies to return money taken out of Croatia in the last 12 years (by some accounts between 20-30 milion dollars), to use the authority of the President of Croatia who in his pre-election campaign promised that as a nation we will return the money to Croatia and that we will not pay anyone to do this in our name.
That all Ministries in Croatia organize themselves to work with the Diaspora.
That the Croatian Government provides a television program for the diaspora, that would be free of charge and available in the whole world.
To request an accounting of all spent money that the Diaspora gave during the creation of the Republic of Croatia.

PREREQUISITES FOR PROTECTING THE SOVEREIGNTY OF CROATIA AND RECOGNIZED NATIONAL, CULTURAL AND THE IDENTITY OF THE CROATIAN PEOPLE.

Reform the government of the Republic of Croatia.
When reforming the government resolve to have only 7 to 9 ministries.
Free Law, Police, Army and Government Departments from political and party nepotizm. In these organizations it is necessary to have experts not political party affiliations.
Separate lawmakers, courts, and judicary leadership, such that these leadership roles function smoothly on the grounds of the Constitution and Laws.
Halt the sales of national resources until new laws on privatization are put in place.
Create new laws on Privatization that will protect Croatian citiziens rights on national resources that it helped create.
Create and pass a law for criminals (if criminal act committed during the privatization of Croatian companies) that does not expire.
Create a general urban plan for all 4 (5) countries.
Create a general urban plan for all Croatia.
Define comparative differentiators for Croatia (eg – agriculture, forward vision for a natural-health tourism industry and marine orientation with a separate focus on shipbuilding in particular leisure and sporting boats).
Create a Development Strategy for Croatia for the first 20 years and next 50 years.
Create Laws that will function for development and trade Croatia.

Club Organization and Infrastructure

The International Club of Croatian Immigrants, Returneers and Investors from the Diaspora as an organization must represent all members of the Croatian people both inside and outside Croatia. The Club has to hold hard to its program and function in the interests of Croatian people whereever they may be. The Club has to find a way, both with the Government in Croatia and the Governments in

countries where Croatians live, to establish a constructive dialogue, and on that platform together build trust and find roads that will lead to a better and happier future.

Find a way for Croatia to fund the Club in Croatia, and parts of the Club that are located in other countries to be funded by those countries. In that way, build a community among the people that satisfies all parties.

The Croatian Government has to secure the means for informative functioning of the Club (Print, Radio and Television).

Members of the Club have to, through their own means and capabilities and with the Government of Croatia, find ways to work together and function both within Croatia and the world, with a goal of working and functioning jointly in a global way.

The main task is to find ways how to move forward multinational relations, create trust, create economic ties and along the way create better working conditions and a better outlook for Croatia and its people wherever they may be.

From this, the First Legislative Council Meeting of the Croatian Diaspora we

INVITE ALL CROATIANS

We sincerely request all members of the Croatian Community, inside and outside Croatia to help the Croatian Club for the Diaspora in an effort to create a joint Croatian program on our planet. All members of the Croatian Community to work together to find a way out of our critical MORAL and economic crisis in which we find ourselves today.

Your help can be:

1. 1. To work in helping organize Club, translating the Club's programs to actively becoming involved in the work of the Club in the city where you live and work.

2. 2. Advice, contacts, requests and proposals.

3. 3. Recommending the Club's program, goals and tasks and participating in realizing quality programs that interest you.

4. 4. Ideas of how to tie together economic subjects to participating in realizing economic programs and projects.

5. 5. Promoting and spreading the consciousness especially among young people on the need of a united Croatian national identity so that we as a people protect the sovereignty of the Republic of Croatia and as a people our national, cultural and other characteristics. (Imagine what we are at risk losing - a People – it can’t be worse than than – Extinction).

6. 6. With your money helping the Club financially so that it can be socially and financially independent. You can wire funds or right a check to:

Internationalni Klub Hrvatske Dijaspora

ZAGREBAČKA BANKA – POREC

Devizni račun- 7001 – 1545060 SWIFT: ZABA HR 2X

7. Donations of books, pictures and similar articles so that we can enrich the library and selections

of the Club.

However you decide to help, with it you are helping yourself, your country Croatia and your Croatian nation.

In as much as you don’t adopt our Invitation, and you don’t want to join the Club’s program, in that you do not want to become involved in the program of uniting Croatian national identity, please do not create obstacles for us in realizing this program. With this alone you are helping Croatia and the Croatian nation. Thank You.

TO THOSE, WHO, IN WHICHEVER WAY, CHOOSE TO HELP, THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!!

In the name of the Club:

Niko Šoljak prof.

Translation by: Jadranka Matešić (MSc)

Silvia Šušnjić

Sandra Šoljak