Stephen Nikola BARTULICA

Policy topics Stephen Nikola BARTULICA is active on

What Stephen Nikola BARTULICA has said (18)

• 2025-11-05 “E-004352/2025 Answer given by Ms Kos on behalf of the European Commission In the context of EU accession negotiations, Serbia must meet the interim benchmarks under Chapter 23 on judiciary and fundamental rights. Particularly, on the handling of domestic war crimes cases, Serbia is expected to effectively demonstrate adequate investigations of allegations and equal treatment of suspects to ensure that no one is above the law, regardless of their nationality or ethnicity or that of the victims. Moreover, Serbia is expected to engage in meaningful regional cooperation and good neighbourly relations in handling war crimes by avoiding conflicts of jurisdictions and ensuring that war crimes are prosecuted without any discrimination. All outstanding issues in this regard must be fully resolved before accession. The Commission follows closely the domestic handling of war crimes cases in the context of Serbia’s EU accession negotiations. In the 2025 Enlargement Package 1 , it is reported that individuals in Serbia are able to evade justice by taking advantage of prohibitions against extradition of nationals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Commission does not comment on individual cases. 1 SWD(2025) 755 final.”
  EU relations with Western Balkans · EU-Serbia relations · Support for International Criminal Court
• 2025-09-01 “E-003339/2025 Answer given by Mr Serafin on behalf of the European Commission A definition of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and the obligation to indicate in grant applications under direct management whether an applicant entity is an NGO came into effect in September 2024 with the Financial Regulation recast 1 . Information on funding received from the EU budget in direct management can be found in the public Financial Transparency System (FTS) 2 . It allows to specifically search for NGOs. Pursuant to the Commission´s validation rules 3 , the Commission does not check and validate the status of every single applicant. Nonetheless, the Commission systematically checks against supporting documents whether an entity is a private body and a non-profit organisation 4 , which are the main elements to qualify as an NGO under the validation rules. Before awarding EU funding, the Commission carries out rigorous selection processes, including several different checks on grant beneficiaries based on objective criteria, such as their compliance with exclusion criteria or the EU restrictive measures. Applicants also need to sign a declaration on honour, declaring whether they are in a situation of a grave professional misconduct. Under the Early Detection and Exclusion System, the Commission may exclude unreliable economic operators and organisations from EU funding and thus create a list of such entities based on grounds including incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence, before the award, during the implementation, and after the project ends. As mentioned in the Commission’s reply to the European Court of Auditor’s special report on transparency of EU funding granted to NGOs 5 , the Commission will explore the feasibility of incrementally publishing annual data in the FTS, and, therefore, increase the frequency of updates. Currently, quarterly updates 6 are carried out to reflect any additional or reduced amounts, as well as the amounts consumed. In line with Article 277(6) of the Financial Regulation, the Commission will increase completeness of information by extending the publication requirement to indirect and shared management as of the next multiannual financial framework, subject to availability of such data stored in the single data mining and risk-scoring tool 7 . 1 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202402509. 2 https://ec.europa.eu/budget/financial-transparency-system/analysis.html. 3 EU Funding & Tenders Portal validation rules : https://ec.europa.eu/info/fundingtenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/guidance/rules-lev-lear-fca_en.pdf. 4 Definition of non-profit entity from the validation rules: ‘entity that is non-profit making by its legal form or legal purpose (e.g. charitable organisations), or that has a legal or statutory obligation not to distribute profits to its shareholders or members’. 5 https://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECAReplies/COM-Replies-SR-2025-11/COM-Replies-SR-2025-11_EN.pdf. 6 https://ec.europa.eu/budget/financial-transparency-system/faq.html. 7 Defined under Article 36(2)(d) of the Financial Regulation.”
  Accounting and auditing of EU budget · Regulation of NGOs in Europe
• 2025-01-16 “P-000187/2025 Answer given by Ms Šuica on behalf of the European Commission The New Pact for the Mediterranean 1 will strive to refocus the partnership with the Southern Neighbourhood region around mutual interests and with a clear objective to put people at the centre. The Mediterranean region is home to an exceptional cultural and religious diversity. Upholding the EU values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, and the rule of law will remain at the core of the engagement. In partnership with regional counterparts, the Commission will aim at co-creating an inclusive framework that safeguards the rights of all individuals. Through open dialogue and mutual understanding, the Commission will work to strengthen protection for vulnerable groups against persecution, discrimination, violence, and forced displacement. The EU has all the assets to support the right of people in the Middle East, regardless their religious belonging, to live in peace and security, and it will make sure to use its voice to uphold fundamental values. The Commission will reinforce its role as an essential actor of constructive dialogue with governments, religious leaders and civil society organizations, to promote mutual understanding, tolerance and respect for human rights. Providing financial and technical assistance to support projects and initiatives that promote intercultural dialogue will remain a core strand of cooperation, while also integrating human rights and protection of minority groups into development programmes and projects across the board. 1 A Joint Communication is under preparation by the European Commission.”
  EU relations with the Southern Neighbourhood · EU engagement with Christian communities inside and outside the EU
• 2024-12-11 “E-002856/2024 Answer given by Mr Dombrovskis on behalf of the European Commission Euro cash is granted legal tender status in the euro area 1 . In accordance with the Court’s jurisprudence 2 , legal tender entails, in principle, the mandatory acceptance of cash, at full face value, with the power to discharge from a payment obligation. The Commission’s proposal 3 for a Regulation on the legal tender of euro cash aims to safeguard the role of euro cash in practice, to ensure it is widely accepted as a means of payment and remains easily accessible for everyone across the euro area. The proposal does so by enshrining in legislation that cash acceptance is in principle mandatory across the euro area, and by requiring Member States to monitor cash acceptance and access and to take remedial measures where necessary. The proposal seeks to preserve the financial inclusion of vulnerable groups by ensuring that these groups, that are more dependent on cash, continue to have access to and are free to choose their preferred payment method, thus preventing discrimination against those who rely on cash for their payments. The proposal foresees that Member States would have to ensure that the legal tender principle of mandatory acceptance is not undermined by widespread refusals of cash through the unilateral and ex ante exclusion of cash by enterprises. They would have the obligation to monitor the level of ex ante unilateral exclusions of payments in cash and to take remedial measures if cash non-acceptance levels are deemed to undermine the mandatory acceptance of euro cash. 1 Article 128 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union lays down the legal tender status of euro banknotes, and Article 11 of Regulation EC/974/98 does so with regard to euro coins. 2 See judgment of 26 January 2021 in Joined Cases C-422/19 and C-423/19, Hessischer Rundfunk https://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?num=C-422/19 3 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3501”
  Cash as means of payment
• 2024-12-11 “E-002857/2024 Answer given by Ms Roswall on behalf of the European Commission The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) 1 was adopted by the co-legislators on 16 December 2024 and has entered into force on 11 February 2025. Paragraph 18 of Article 29 on reuse targets empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts supplementing the reuse targets established in that Article with new exemptions, under strict legal conditions, and if this is necessary to take account of the latest scientific and economic developments. In particular, the Commission is empowered to establish exemptions for economic operators due to particular economic constraints encountered in a sector related to the compliance with the Regulation, can establish exemptions for specific packaging in case of hygiene, food safety and environmental issues, and establish exemptions for specific packaging formats, where environmental issues prevent the achievement of those targets. With regard to Article 29(18), the Commission intends to interpret it objectively and take action when the necessity to act is demonstrated via substantiated, sound evidence. 1 Regulation (EU) 2025/40 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2024 on packaging and packaging waste, amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 and Directive (EU) 2019/904, and repealing Directive 94/62/EC, OJ L, 2025/40, 22.1.2025.”
  Environmental regulation of fisheries · Food waste
• “Thank you very much. On behalf of the ECR Group, I would like to nominate Mr. Giuseppe Milazzo for vice chair. Thank you. **Carmen Crespo Díaz @Co-Chair: Any further nominations? Anyone? Sorry. Go ahead. **André Rodrigues: I will speak in my mother tongue. Portuguese. First of all, congratulations to the vice, to the to the chair and the vice chair. And I wish you all the best for this following term on this election. I would like to have a secret ballot. Thank you.”
  Multilingualism in EU institutions
• “Thank you, dear colleagues. The American President Trump is not the greatest problem for Europe. Even before he gained power, the European share in the global trade was falling. Why? There are many reasons for this. One is the hyper regulation in Brussels. So it is impossible to continue in this way. Then I would like to say that if Europe doesn't give up on the green plan green agenda, we are going to suffocate industry and it is impossible to regulate the relations in our countries in this way. As a sign that things are not functioning, I would like to say that Europe imports more than 70% of fish that our people eat. So 70% we can't realize whatever we need for our everyday life. So Europe needs urgent changes. We cannot continue like this. And these stories about declarations do not cover the reality.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you. Colleagues, by pushing these targets. The EU is destroying its own. So the European trophy climate alarms have taken over common sense. The EU is not able to protect its borders or to resolve migration crisis. And it thinks it can solve the planet. It's absurd that Europe, producing only 7% of global emissions, to act as if the whole Earth's destiny depended on it. While EU deals with plastic bottle caps and limiting fossil fuels the rest of the world laughs at us. China and America under Trump and other countries do not care for the green agenda. They keep on growing while Europe suffocates in its own red tape. One example the poorest federal state, Mississippi in America, has surpassed practically Germany. This is not politics. This is new religion. Green religion. It does not save the planet. It is destroying Europe. Go green. Go bankrupt.”
  Climate efforts
• “Thank you very much, dear colleagues. What have we learned from the pandemic? Very little, I'm afraid. What actually happened? The situation was abused. The media were spreading fear among people. Even now, we can see elderly people in the streets wearing masks. So we cannot allow this to happen in the name of protecting people. The new pandemic agreement has a number of traps. We must be very critical when it comes to the intentions of these people. It is enough to see how the World Health Organization is financed nowadays. The money comes mostly from private sources, not from governments. So there are different interests in play here, and, we were able to see this during the COVID pandemic.”
  Vaccination
• “For many years the Croats were able to overthrow dictatorship, communist dictatorship. But we look at what's happening now in the European Union. There are new challenges, uh, for democracy. There's an attempt to control public space, to limit freedom of speech and expression. There is a lot of pressure being piled on the platform X. But we see that when the official political narrative is not being followed, then, uh, that is being sanctioned. And we know of a teacher who is behind bars because he didn't want to, uh, self-censor himself and wanted to continue speaking the truth. Uh, some people are being punished because they want to quote the Bible. That's not the sort of censorship we want to see. And it runs against our fundamental freedoms.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “Thank you. Colleagues, we are looking at another Brussels package. The digital package. This this time it's a nicely wrapped but is full of additional procedures and hidden, um, barriers. They describe it as simple, but we know very well how it looks in practice. Each reform which should reduce bureaucracy, creates only more bureaucracy. We talk about better use of data, but we know what that means. It means that, uh, the state will interfere in the private sector in and in our privacy. Uh, The European Union will establish a new agency for the media, which will be scrutinising the public space with transparency. They want to control the political processes and control the political narrative. What we need is less regulation. If we continue like this, we will become only users of others technologies and not the creators of these technologies. Brussels believes more in control than in freedom. Thank you.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “Thank you very much for your questions. These are not fake statements and this information. I'm glad that we have successful digital companies, but I can't support, uh, financing of fact checkers by our government. Unfortunately, our government accepts the principle that it is the one to determine what our citizens are supposed to read or not. This is not the role of government. Our citizens should have a freedom of choice. Thank you.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “Thank you very much. Commissioner Dombrovskis. We view the digital euro as not merely a new form of payment, but as a potential panoptic tool of social control programmable, traceable and centrally managed. Yet the current proposal lacks clear legal limits on when and how individual accounts can be frozen or shut down. We have deep banking happening inside the EU banks shutting down accounts without any explanation. So what are the concrete safeguards that you will introduce to prevent ideological or political discrimination? Perhaps an explicit prohibition on suspending or terminating accounts on the basis of beliefs or speech. Or mandatory, transparent notice and meaningful appeal procedures, or significant penalties for any bank or payment intermediary that attempts to debunk someone. Thank you.”
  Digital euro
• “(11:03:08 – 11:04:14): you very much, colleagues. Much has been spoken lately about increasing competitiveness of Europe, But words are not enough. We need actions. We need to look truth in the eye. And truth is that Europe is losing the race in competitiveness. Our talent is moving to The States. And now even the poorest state in United States, Mississippi, has the same standard as Germany. Also, energy is too expensive. So if we continue on this path, we'll actually move towards poverty, I would say. So what do we need? We need common sense and faith in ordinary people who know best what to do and how to run business than elected officials. So we need to return faith into common sense and citizens in Europe. Otherwise, we're going to pay dearly if we continue on this path. Thank you. Mister Beck. Thank very”
  Overall simplification of regulation in the EU
• “Thank you very much, colleagues. Much has been spoken lately about increasing competitiveness of Europe. But words are not enough. We need actions. We need to look truth in the eye. And truth is that Europe is losing the race in competitiveness. Our talent is moving to the states, and now even the poorest state in the United States, Mississippi has the same standard as Germany. Also, our energy is too expensive. So if we continue on this path, we'll actually move towards poverty, I would say. So what do we need? We need common sense and faith in ordinary people who know best what to do and how to run business than elected officials. So we need to return faith into in common sense and citizens in Europe. Otherwise, we're going to pay dearly if we continue on this path.”
  Overall simplification of regulation in the EU
• “Thank you colleagues. The European Union is facing many troubles. We are particularly concerned by the excessive control of social media. There are stories about control of freedoms, but this leads to manipulation. Croatia is a sovereign state must not allow somebody from outside to impose rules restricting restricting freedom of speech and other freedoms. For example, the expression hate speech is almost impossible to define. Are people in power hate this expression? For example, if you quote something from the Bible, it might be treated as hate speech in some countries. The European Union has become a monitor of development and the barrier to digital future. Uh, we are faced with the ideological chains. Thank you.”
  Disinformation & online freedoms
• “Thank you very much. On behalf of the ECR Group, I would like to nominate Mr. Giuseppe Milazzo for vice chair. Thank you.”
  Recruitment policies in the EU
• “Dear colleagues, thank you very much. The same people who brought Europe to where it is now vulnerable as it is at the moment, are not the same people who can save Europe. We need a change in this respect. Speaking about competitiveness, we hear a big words. We are waiting for new studies. But I have a simple proposal. What Europe should do is establish its own Doge, the European Department for Efficiency of Government. So we can see at the model of Trump's administration and how we can save our taxpayers money. The EU has a huge propaganda network of NGOs and journalists paid by our taxpayers, but often working against the wishes of our people. And now, finally, €800 billion for defence is not the right way. We saw, uh, during the Covid war to common procurement leads to.”
  Regulation of NGOs in Europe