Students Visit the Croatian Parliament’s European Affairs Committee

About the project

The project addresses the challenges of low awareness and involvement of Croatian citizens in European Citizen Initiatives and EC public consultations on draft EU policies, as well as the lack of academic research, teaching and public debates about those challenges. It aims to promote excellence in teaching and research on active European democratic citizenship and strengthen the understanding of how the EU works as a precondition for active citizen engagement in EU policymaking. Given the low trust of Croatian citizens in the EU institutions and trends of disinformation about the EU, the project aims to contribute to the societal resilience to democratic backsliding tendencies and growing threats to fundamental European values.

By combining innovative teaching methods, students’ community engagement, research, and multi-stakeholder public debates, the project will enhance the active European citizenship competencies among students of political science and journalism at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Zagreb and encourage them to share their knowledge about the EU among Croatian citizens. Through conducting communication campaigns on European citizen initiatives and EC public consultations and through participating in a simulation of negotiations on selected EU legislative files, students will develop their critical thinking skills and learn how to actively engage in European democratic life. Various events on active citizen engagement in EU policymaking will be organized to mobilise the participation of representatives of the academic community, civil society, media, and business, as well as local, state and EU-level policymakers. Drawing on the empirical evidence gathered during the project, a series of research papers will be published and the findings widely disseminated. The project should provide an impetus to increasing the number of Croatian citizens participating in European citizen initiatives and EC public consultations. The duration of the project is from September 2023 until September 2026.

Students from the Faculty of Political Science visited the Croatian Parliament and met with Jelena Miloš, Chair of the Parliament’s European Affairs Committee. The visit was organised as part of the course Political System of the European Union, under the guidance of Professor Igor Vidačak, with the aim of deepening the students’ understanding of the system for managing European affairs in Croatia.

The discussion focused on the quality of parliamentary scrutiny of the Government’s activities in the Council of the European Union and the European Council, in accordance with the Act on Cooperation between the Croatian Parliament and the Government of the Republic of Croatia in European Affairs.

The discussion also addressed the quality and dynamics of interparliamentary cooperation among EU Member States in processing EU documents submitted directly to national parliaments, procedures for reviewing compliance with the principle of subsidiarity, and, more broadly, the handling of Croatia’s positions and reasoned opinions concerning documents submitted by the European Union.

Finally, the students were particularly interested in the Croatian Parliament’s engagement in the EU enlargement policy and the extent of its cooperation with the parliaments of candidate countries.

The activity was carried out as part of the Jean Monnet Chair project Active European Democratic Citizenship for a Resilient Society.

Jean Monnet Chair "Active European Democratic Citizenship for Resilient Society"

About the project

Key staff members from the Faculty

You can access the project's Facebook page by clicking on the link.

Students Visit the Croatian Parliament’s European Affairs Committee