Anka Mrak Taritaš

Anka Mrak Taritaš (born 24 November 1959) is a Croatian politician and architect who served as the Minister of Construction and Spatial Planning in the center-left Cabinet of Zoran Milanović from 2012 until 2016. She was often proclaimed the best minister in the Government. Her biggest success was the enactment of the "Law on the Legalization of Illegally Constructed Buildings" which helped in legalizing 100.000 buildings which were constructed without any building permit or out of gabarites of issued building permit. Mrak Taritaš is Vice president of the Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats.

Early life and education

Anka Mrak Taritaš was born on November 24, 1959 in Bjelovar, where she finished elementary and high school. She graduated architecture in 1983 from the Zagreb Faculty of Architecture. In year 2002, she took courses in building permits and legislative frameworks in Finland and Germany. In 2006, she passed the training course for teachers on Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment. In 2008, Mrak Taritaš gained her doctorate with thesis: "Analysis of the quantification of indicators of planning tourist zones within the protected coastal zone".^[1]

Working experience

After graduation, Mrak Taritaš worked for a year on the creating of major projects of the Zagreb University Hospital and the ACI marina on the Adriatic. From 15 August 1984 until 15 December 1992, she worked as intern at the Committee for Planning and Building of the Trnje district on various jobs in the field of spatial planning and construction, including issuing conditions for spatial planning, building permits and use permits, as well as technical inspection. On 16 December 1992, she became Head of the Department for Coordination of National, Regional and Local Planning in the Department of Spatial Planning of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Spatial Planning and Construction. She was also consultant for the spatial planning. From 12 July 2005 until 13 October 2005, Mrak Taritaš served as head of the Institute for Development Planning and Environmental Protection of Zagreb. On 13 October 2005, Mrak Taritaš become Head of Department of Spatial Planning of the Ministry of Construction and Spatial Planning. She also participated in the work of committees for the evaluation of studies of environmental impact as Deputy President of the Commission, and working group for preparation of negotiations on amendments to bilateral international treaties that Croatia concluded with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. After Kukuriku coalition won the 2011 parliamentary elections, Mrak Taritaš was appointed Deputy Minister of Construction and Spatial Planning with minister being Ivan Vrdoljak. After Radimir Čačić, Minister of Economy, resigned and Vrdoljak took his place, Mrak Taritaš was appointed minister.^[2][3]

Political career

Mrak Taritaš is member of the Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats. On 2015 parliamentary elections, she received 8.047 preferential votes and has thus become member of the Croatian Parliament.^[4] She expressed her clear intention of running for Mayor of Zagreb in 2016 elections for what she got support from her party.^[5]

References