If the abolition is approved, the municipality of Zagreb may lose its membership in the European Network of Family-Friendly Municipalities
On 5 November, the City of Zagreb opened a consultation with the interested public on the ‘Draft Proposal of the Decision on Amendments to the Decision on Financial Assistance for Parents of Educators’. As can be read from the proposal of the said Decision, which was confirmed at yesterday’s press conference by the Deputy Mayor of the City of Zagreb Danijela Dolenec, the parent-educator measure is practically abolished, not only for potential new users, but even for existing ones.
This measure consists of a monthly financial benefit, higher than the country’s minimum wage, which is granted to families with three or more children, in which one of the parents is not in the labor market and is dedicated exclusively to raising their children.
The 3plus Family Association considers that such a proposal for a Decision is completely unacceptable . We reiterate that the acquired rights for existing users of the parent-educator measure must not be diminished, and especially not taken away. Existing beneficiaries of the parent-educator measure made a long-term decision when, for example, one of the parents resigned, devoted himself entirely to the family and the upbringing of the children, and the whole family adjusted their financial, credit, housing and organizational obligations. The deprivation of any acquired and contractually defined rights is discrimination against all existing beneficiaries of the parent-educator measure.
In a public consultation of the City of Zagreb on the measure in question, held in January 2020, the 3plus Family Association presented a series of concrete proposals for adapting the parent-educator measure for new beneficiaries, with the aim of making the measure attractive to future beneficiaries and sustainable for implementation. Our suggestions that we sent in this public consultation are available here.
The 3plus Family Association has repeatedly emphasized the need for the parent-educator measure, as the most concrete measure of demographic and family policy, to be implemented at the national level, which is often emphasized by leading Croatian demographic experts. The data from the Central Bureau of Statistics also support this, which shows that the measure of a parent-educator in the City of Zagreb influenced the fact that a larger percentage of mothers decided to have more than two children. Finally, one of the pre-election promises of the Croatian Democratic Union back in 2016 (visible in the official election program “Credible”, p. 57) was: “We will pass a law on the rights and status of parents – educators in families with four or more children.”How much longer do we have to wait for the move of the competent ministry and / or the Government to realize this promise?
Short note about the 3plus Family Association
The 3plus Family Association brings together almost 1,500 families with over 8,500 members of these families (parents + children). Through its activities, it seeks to contribute to the creation of better living conditions for families in Croatia, especially those with three or more children, so that families are the starting point of mature individuals and bearers of the development of society. It does so through a variety advocacy activities, but also through concrete projects. One of the current projects he is implementing is education on digital literacy for children from the 3plus family, entitled “Equal (digital) opportunities for all”. Goal of this project is to enable primary school children in Croatia to have the same (digital) chances for school and life success. More information is available HERE. A significant project of the Association is the Family Card, within which to all 3plus families that are members of the Association, project partners enable a more affordable purchase of their products and / or service. More than 80 companies are already involved in this project, and a list of all partner companies and their affiliates benefits are available HERE.
This is a horrible measure for our children, they are saving money on their “backs” but wont stop the corruption in the city. The problem is our city doesnt have kindergartens for these children but nobody cares. Our new mayor is stopping all measures regarding family growth, including financial help for children. It is a disgrace 🙁
Suport to mothers and kids… 💕
Suport to mothers and kids ♥️♥️♥️
Children are the future!
I support the measure of a parent educator in the city of Zagreb and the whole country of Croatia!
I am sorry that this is happening to us, that the new mayor is working on asylum and is giving himself up to green actions, and at the same time he is revoking the acquired rights of the beneficiary of the parent-educator measure.
Can I shock you that at the same time, that mayor, Tomislav Tomašević, is organizing an Advent in the name of the toys of those same children?
I feel humiliated, disappointed and deceived by the city because we signed an official document where we acquired the measure of parent educator 🙁
I HOPE THAT GIVES THIS AN UGLY DREAM AND THAT THE CITY OF ZAGREB WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS FROM THE NEW MAYOR.
The new mayor of Zagreb and his team really hate children and parents, motivated by their ideological views, children are not eco-friendly for them. Even at the opening of the newly renovated school, the children were not allowed to show themselves to the mayor and the team, but had to remain silent and closed in the classrooms. Most of the children’s sports activities that were funded by the city, have stopped funding. Cash allowances for newborn children have been reduced to a shameful amount. And now, in the end, he managed to stop the amount of money that the city of Zagreb was giving to those parents with three or more children in order not to stimulate the birth rate, because the demographic picture of Croatia is in great decline.
He left over 5,500 beneficiary parents without any income, and that includes more than 21,000 children, who have nowhere to enroll in kindergartens, because there are no places in kindergartens, and there are no new kindergartens.
This is a shame and an unprecedented terror for children and parents, which is happening right now in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia in the heart of Europe.
We wonder if the European institutions will react to this?