7. Notes that corruption seems to have been widespread in Croatia and remains a serious overall problem; welcomes the efforts of the Croatian Government to take a strong stance against all forms of corruption; stresses that the Government gave special attention to the legal and institutional framework for fighting corruption, including investigations, prosecutions and inter-agency and international cooperation; takes note of the high-profile anti-corruption cases under way involving a former Prime Minister, two former ministers, high-profile civil servants and numerous general managers of state-owned firms; expects transparent and fair trials and reminds the Croatian authorities of the importance of protecting the corruption investigati ...[+++]on process from political interference; welcomes the creation of special anti-corruption and organised crime departments in the four largest courts in the country, where judges are screened and receive additional training; requests OLAF to closely cooperate with the Croatian authorities in order to shed light on the potential secondary corruption which may be generated within the EU Institutions;

7. Notes that corruption seems to have been widespread in Croatia and remains a serious overall problem; welcomes the efforts of the Croatian Government to take a strong stance against all forms of corruption; stresses that the Government gave special attention to the legal and institutional framework for fighting corruption, including investigations, prosecutions and inter-agency and international cooperation; takes note of the high-profile anti-corruption cases under way involving a former Prime Minister, two former ministers, high-profile civil servants and numerous general managers of state-owned firms; expects transparent and fair trials and reminds the Croatian authorities of the importance of protecting the corruption investigati ...[+++]on process from political interference; welcomes the creation of special anti-corruption and organised crime departments in the four largest courts in the country, where judges are screened and receive additional training; requests OLAF to closely cooperate with the Croatian authorities in order to shed light on the potential secondary corruption which may be generated within the EU Institutions;

7. Notes that corruption seems to have been widespread in Croatia and remains a serious overall problem; welcomes the efforts of the Croatian Government to take a strong stance against all forms of corruption; stresses that the Government gave special attention to the legal and institutional framework for fighting corruption, including investigations, prosecutions and inter-agency and international cooperation; takes note of the high-profile anti-corruption cases under way involving a former Prime Minister, two former ministers, high-profile civil servants and numerous general managers of state-owned firms; expects transparent and fair trials and reminds the Croatian authorities of the importance of protecting the corruption investigati ...[+++]on process from political interference; welcomes the creation of special anti-corruption and organised crime departments in the four largest courts in the country, where judges are screened and receive additional training; requests OLAF to closely cooperate with the Croatian authorities in order to shed light on the potential secondary corruption which may be generated within the EU Institutions;

None of the rules, procedures, programmes, agreements, arrangements or contracts referred to in this section may be used for the purpose of circumventing the provisions of this Directive.

4. Welcomes the fact that the procedure for election to the UNHRC has made it possible to exclude from the UNHRC major human rights violators such as Iran and Belarus; regrets, nevertheless, that not all geographic groups have organised genuine procedures for elections concerning accession to the UNHRC; regrets that the system of voluntary pledges has had very disparate and inadequate results, enabling governments to shy away from their international human rights obligations; in this regard, is deeply concerned by the tactical use of so-called commitments by some members a ...[+++]nd therefore reaffirms that full cooperation with Special Procedures should remain the bottom-line criterion for acceding to the UNHRC;

a complementary procedure for asylum applications made outside the EU and outside the country of origin, but one which must be additional to an assessment of claims on the territory of Member States and should not permit the Member States to escape their international obligations under the Geneva Convention nor other humanitarian commitments;