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Zagreb - Parliament on Friday adopted a bill of amendments to the Croatian Qualifications Framework Act to define 13 instead of 11 existing education qualification levels.
The law sets different levels for qualifications obtained upon completing vocational courses in relation to those obtained after completing university courses.
Amendments to several laws adopted
The law was amended in line with a Constitutional Court decision on abolishing provisions that equalised university and vocational qualifications. The court delivered the ruling following a complaint by the University of Zagreb and faculties of law which said that university and vocational courses should not be at the same level of qualifications.
The Investment Subsidies Act was amended to add new investment subsidies to deal with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. This will exceptionally allow investment subsidies for enterprises that had not experienced any hardship prior to 31 December 2019 but did so in the period between 1 January and 30 June 2020.
Amendments to the Railways Act were adopted to regulate situations when requests for access to railway infrastructure are submitted by several operators applying for the same line at the same time. The law regulates procedures to ensure the best possible way to satisfy the needs of railway operators.
Parliament also adopted amendments to the Civil Protection Act to appropriately implement the EU directive on the control of major accident hazards involving dangerous substances, known as the Seveso Directive.
Parliament sends several bills to second reading
A motion by the Green-Left Bloc and SDP for amending the law on enforcement over monetary assets, calling for a moratorium until a new enforcement law is adopted to prevent the blocking of accounts, did not receive majority support.
Quorum retained
Hearing that the majority in Parliament was short of one MP due to a death in the family, MPs Dalija Orešković and Marijana Puljak from the Centre party decided to not participate in the voting on Friday, which would have meant that the majority would not have a quorum.
However, other opposition MPs remained in the Parliament and the quorum was retained.