May 2, 2022 - After two long years, Summer in Zagreb is back! A taster of the culture, concerts and festivals that await. 

The sun is shining, all COVID restrictions have been lifted, and another glorious summer in Zagreb is almost upon us. Unlike the last two difficult years of cancellations due to coronavirus, Summer in Zagreb 2022 looks like it will be a return to the good old carefree days of life before the pandemic. And there is certainly plenty to celebrate and enjoy. 

It was only after I moved to Zagreb last year that I realised what a vibrant little city it has become in the last few years. Headline events such as Advent in Zagreb seem to attract most of the tourism headlines, but there are plenty of things happening all through the year. Yesterday, for example, the iconic streets of Ilica was tramless, as Zagreb's most famous street gave way to the annual Ilica Q'Art Project, an excellent family day out. 

(Photo credit: Boska i Kreso)

That is one of the things I have come to appreciate about living in the capital over the last year - there is always SOMETHING going on, and this summer will be no different. While many understandably will be heading for some beach time on the Adriatic, there is plenty happening to entertain those who want to explore one of Europe's most vibrant and up-and-coming destinations. 

Zagreb has been developing its tourism brand over the last few years, placing art and culture as a cornerstone of the city's tourism offer. And fans of culture, concerts and festivals will have plenty to choose from this summer. 

Music fans will be delighted to see the return of the iconic INMusic Festival after a 2-year absence. The 15th edition of the city's premier music festival will take place from June 20 - 23, with this year's headline acts including The Killers, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and Deftones.  If you can't make it to INMusic, there is still plenty of opportunity to catch some of the world's biggest music acts in the Croatian capital. Choose from Iron Maiden (22.05), Dream Theater (27.05), Placebo (27.06), Simple Minds (30.06), Whitesnake (02.07), Kiss (09.07), and the Pixies (27.08). All this before The Cure come to visit in October. For something a little gentler to the ear, make a date in the diary for Zagreb Soloists: Sounds of Oktogon on May 15. 

INMusic is not the only music festival with a long tradition. Last year, one of Zagreb's most famous club programs, Future Scope, marked its 20th anniversary, and this year it is celebrating in style - a three-day festival on Lake Jarun, which will take place on four stylistically different but quality complementary stages. This round birthday is celebrated from 13 to 15 May on the Jarun Island of Croatian Youth. The protagonists of the celebration are some of the most famous local and world musicians.

Not all music festivals need to have a long history to be excellent entertainment, and LMF (Let the Music be Free) Festival is an excellent example of this. This unique festival experience on Jarun lake will see it transformed from June 3-5 into a big stage with worldwide and regional DJs!

Electonic music fans will be able to dance the evening away under the stars on Jarun 10 days later on June 15, as the We Love Sound Open Air Festival returns for its 5th edition. Some of the biggest names in electronic music will share three stages on the edge of Jarun for an unforgettable night of electronic music madness. 

But if you are looking to party with a view, May 21 and June 18 are dates for you, as BSH Medvedgrad nights host perhaps the finest dance nights with a view in the city. The iconic Medvedgrad Fortress, high above the city is the location for an unforgettable atmospheric dance night in an unbeatable location.  

One of the many gourmet innovations in the city in recent years has revolved around the craft beer scene, and Zagreb and Croatia have seen an explosion of craft beer breweries and bars. There is no better place to sample the best of the best than at the annual Zagreb Beer Fest, which runs this year from May 19-22. 

With its numerous parks, Zagreb is known as one of the greenest capitals in Europe, and so perhaps it is no surprise that it is also home to the largest green festival in the region. From June 2-5 Tvornica and Rougemarin Park will host over 60 foreign and domestic speakers, where sustainable topics will be discussed at the Greencajt Festival and green changes encouraged through various content - panel discussions, lectures, workshops, an exhibition of electric cars.

Summer in Zagreb is also paradise for theatre lovers, and there are various themed theatre events, adding an extra cultural dimension to the summer season. These include Summer Evenings of the Croatian National Theatre from June to September, Exit Theatre Summer Evenings from June to August, and Days of the Gavran Theatre in June. 

(Photo credit: Boska i Kreso)

But Zagreb is above all, a very walkable city, and the city has worked hard to provide entertainment of all kinds seemingly on every street corner. One such addition last year was the Mali (Little) Zagreb art project, as we reported previously. Look out (and this is a great one for the kids) for tiny compositions which resemble the facades of Zagreb´s residential buildings and the windows of the once typical Zagreb businesses and craft shops. Little Zagreb is just about to open for the season and will be on show until September. 

(Photo credit M. Mihaljevic)

Some of the quaintest and less discovered parts of the city are undoubtedly the courtyards of the numerous historic buildings. Areas, perhaps, where tourists do not normally roam, but there is so much Zagreb magic to explore. In order to encourage this, the Zagreb Courtyards project was started in 2014, opening up these unique spaces with various events, decorations and exhibitions (take a peak at last year's TCN report). You can follow what is happening this year on the official Facebook page. 

(Photo credit S. Kastelan)

Perhaps the real essence of Summer in Zagreb is encapsulated in the most-loved Summer on Stross, which brings together the magic of the city in a unique way.  The emphasis is firmly on socialising outdoors, while celebrating culture in its many formats. Carefully created musical programme, art installations integrated into space, somewhat nostalgic atmosphere of the open-air cinema, painters and their canvases and a glass of excellent wine...

Ah, Summer in Zagreb, why would you spend it anywhere else? 

To learn more about the Croatian capital, check out the TC Zagreb in a Page guide. 

May the 2nd, 2022 - Hepatitis in Zagreb has been causing quite a few issues for the best part of two months. The spread of the highly infectious Hepatitis A, a vaccine preventable liver virus caused by the Hepatitis A virus (HAV), has been taking place in multiple locations, with schools high on the list. The Hepatitis A virus is otherwise found in the stool and blood of infected individuals.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, There has been a sizeable outbreak of Hepatitis in Zagreb and it has been going on for around two months now. The largest number of patients at this moment in time are high school students, reports Jutarnji list.

"Since the beginning of March, we've recorded 57 cases of Hepatitis A, mostly among high school students. The causative agent is the Hepatitis A virus, which is transmitted by the feco-oral route, ie by ingesting contaminated water or food in the stool of an infected person or from hands contaminated with the stool of an infected person. The disease was reported among students from three schools in Zagreb and their household contacts.

The issue with Hepatitis in Zagreb is completely under control, and about 45 patients have already recovered. It's possible that in the end, the number of infected people will be higher because the incubation period for Hepatitis A is one month, in some cases even two months,'' said Branko Kolaric, the director of the ''Dr. Andrija Stampar'' Teaching Institute in Zagreb.

Although the schools received instructions regarding the spread of the virus that they passed on to both parents and children, Kolaric would like to appeal to everyone to maintain hand hygiene and to keep washing them regularly.

Hepatitis A or contagious jaundice is an acute contagious liver disease caused by the hepatitis A virus and is most commonly transmitted by unwashed hands, contaminated food or water, and after someone has been in close physical contact with an infected person, including through sexual activity. Incubation lasts 15-50 days, on average about a month. The affected person is contagious 14 days before the onset and seven days after the onset of symptoms.

Liver failure is a possibility if one contracts this virus

“The symptoms of acute Hepatitis A include fever, nausea, vomiting, jaundice, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, light coloured stool, and dark urine. Elevated bilirubin and transaminase levels are then confirmed by performing liver function tests. The disease is often asymptomatic or mild, especially in children under five years of age. However, the problems can really begin if the disease goes unrecognised, meaning it can progress and lead to liver failure,'' said Lorna Stemberger Maric, a pediatric infectologist from the Dr. Fran Mihaljevic Clinic for Infectious Diseases.

"Currently, we don't have any patients with Hepatitis in our department, but in the last month we've had several serious cases in high school and elementary school. Fortunately, all of our young patients have recovered so far. We've had individual cases of acute Hepatitis A in previous years, but I don't remember having such an epidemic that spread among children like this one has,'' added Lorna Stemberger Maric.

In the meantime, the principals of Zagreb's schools received instructions and handed out information leaflets to teachers, parents and students.

It was pointed out that a person can become infected if they eat food prepared by an infected person who didn't wash their hands properly or washed them in contaminated water.

One form of infection is when a person drinks contaminated water, including ice cubes. Furthermore, the consumption of raw or undercooked mussels from contaminated water, raw and uncooked and unwashed foods such as fruit, vegetables and sushi should be avoided.

Humanscan also become infected with Hepatitis A through close contact with a person who has the virus using a shared toilet and kitchen. Another way of contracting the disease is engaging in sexual intercourse with an infected person, and it is especially risky for a man to have sexual intercourse with another infected man. Another common way to contract a Hepatitis A infection is drug consumption using contaminated tools such as needles.

For more on the situation with Hepatitis in Zagreb as it unfolds, make sure to check out our news section.

May 2, 2022 - The Our Lady of Sinj trail was cleaned on the Dugopolje – Dicmo - Sinj section over the weekend, organized by the Sinj Tourist Board. 

Organized by the Sinj Tourist Board in cooperation with NOPD Koćari, with the support of the City of Sinj, the Municipality Dicmo, the Dugopolje Tourist Board, County Roads Split, Čistoće cetinske krajine d.o.o., DVD Dicmo, Croatian Forests Branch Sinj, and members: HGSS station Split branch Sinj, BK Vlaji, Ultra Trail Dinarides, PD Svilaja, PDU Alfa & Omega - Sesvete, pilgrims on the Our Lady of Sinj trail and numerous volunteers successfully conducted an environmental action of cleaning illegal landfills, landscaping and marking the Our Lady of Sinj trail on the Dugopolje - Dicmo - Sinj section.

After last year's successful environmental cleaning and landscaping of 14 illegal landfills in the municipality of Hrvace, Zelovo, and part of the trail in Kukuzovac, this year, the Sinj Tourist Board launched ecological actions of cleaning and marking the existing trails on Sutina and cleaning and marking a part of the Our Lady of Sinj trail on the Dugopolje - Dicmo - Sinj section.

Recall, the Our Lady of Sinj trail project (completed in 2015) is a pilgrimage trail 148 km long that connects Marian shrines from the shrine in Solin to the shrine of Our Lady of Sinj and further to the shrine at Šćit (Prozor - Rama in BiH).

Unfortunately, parts of the trail have been devastated with the accompanying infrastructure. Therefore, in cooperation with Split-Dalmatia County, the Our Lady of Sinj Trail project was launched. Through the project, the Sinj Tourist Board received a new website https://stazagospisinjskoj.hr/ and a virtual walk http://heritagecroatia.com/web/staza-gospi-sinjskoj/ to increase its visibility and accessibility to numerous pilgrims and recreationists.

Unfortunately, despite the efforts of numerous institutions, activists, members of sports associations, and pilgrims, irresponsible individuals continued to dispose of various wastes along the entire Trail. Therefore, to mark Earth Day, the Sinj Tourist Board decided to arouse the conscience of irresponsible individuals with another cleanup and landscaping action and give the competent institutions an incentive for lasting solutions to prevent such adverse effects on the environment and adequately punish irresponsible individuals.

Many volunteers and nature lovers attended this year's action, including members of mountaineering associations: PD Svilaja, NOPD Koćari, PDU Alfa & Omega - Sesvete, members of the Cycling Club Vlaji - Sinj, Ultra Trail Dinarides, and pilgrims from Split, Solin, and Kaštela who regularly pilgrimage on the trail. In addition, members of HGSS stations Split branch office Sinj, DVD Dicmo, Croatian Forests branch office Sinj, then Čistoća Cetinske krajine and Županijska cesta Split took part in the action, without whose employees and mechanization this action would not be feasible.

This action and the previous ones contribute to the development of environmental awareness and appeal to responsibility for Sinj's natural and cultural heritage.

The organizers thank everyone who selflessly took their time and helped in this environmental action.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

May 2, 2022 - The Ryanair Zadar-Vienna winter flight announced last week by the airline may still be too good to be true, as ticket sales on this winter route were removed from sale over the weekend. 

Although Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair released tickets for the winter flight schedule this year less than a week ago, offering regular flights between Zadar and Vienna, tickets on this winter route are no longer available to book, reports Croatian Aviation.

Although Ryanair released tickets for most of its lines in the winter flight schedule, which takes effect at the end of October, additional changes were made over the weekend. Namely, as was announced last week, Ryanair released tickets between Zadar and Vienna throughout the winter, which was certainly great news for Zadar Airport, but, as Croatian Aviation stated in its original announcement of the news, they ensured readers that operational changes should be expected - and that happened just a few days ago. 

In less than a week, Ryanair withdrew this line from sale and it is no longer available for booking in the winter flight schedule. As a reminder, the line was to be offered twice a week, every Friday and Sunday throughout the winter.

The question is whether there will be certain changes in the coming months and the possible announcement of winter routes to Zadar Airport, from which Ryanair operates on several international routes but currently exclusively in the summer flight schedule, from late March to late October.

Croatian Aviation reported initially that this line would be extremely important for the airport and tourism in the region and that Ryanair would announce more winter routes to Zadar Airport. This also falls in line with the Split winter tourism initiative, which is pushing for flights to be extended into the Split Airport winter schedule. You can read more about that here. 

For more on flights to Croatia and other travel announcements, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

May 2, 2022 - The 33rd round of the Croatian First League was played from April 29 to May 1, 2022. This round saw Osijek and Istra draw 2:2, which put Hajduk into 2nd just four points behind Dinamo in first place. Here is our HNL round 33 recap. 

Hajduk v. Hr. Dragovoljac (2:1)

Hajduk and Dragovoljac opened the 33rd round on Friday, April 29, 2022, at Poljud Stadium in Split in front of 9,775 fans. 

Nikola Kalinic gave Hajduk the early lead with a goal in the 6th minute for 1:0. Frigan equalized early in the second half for 1:1 in the 51st minute. Marko Livaja secured Hajduk's win in the 87th minute, which ultimately sealed Dragovoljac's fate outside of the Croatian First League next season. 

Hajduk is now in 2nd place with 66 points, while Dragovoljac is in the last place with 18. 

Slaven Belupo v. Gorica (2:1)

Belupo and Gorica met on Saturday, April 30, 2022, in Koprivnica in front of 505 fans. 

Babec put Gorica in the lead in the 19th minute for 0:1 at the half. Krstanovic equalized for 1:1 in the 72nd minute and Bozic gave Belupo the victory with a goal in the 81st minute for the final 2:1. 

Belupo is currently in 7th place with 34 points, while Gorica is in 6th with 40. 

Sibenik v. Rijeka (3:5)

Sibenik and Rijeka met on Saturday, April 30, 2022, in Sibenik in front of 778 fans. 

Drmic put Rijeka in the lead in the 12th minute while Mesa equalized for 1:1 in the 27th minute. Grezda scored for 2:1 Sibenik less than 10 minutes later and Pavicic scored one minute after that for 2:2 at the half. Kresic put Rijeka back in the lead in the 49th minute for 2:3, and Drmic scored for 2:4 and 2:5 in the 69th and 72nd minutes. Bilic scored for the final 3:5 with 10 minutes to go. 

Sibenik is currently in 8th place with 29 points, while Rijeka is in 4th with 61. 

Osijek v. Istra 1961 (2:2)

Osijek and Rijeka met on Sunday, May 1, 2022, at City Garden Stadium in front of 2,668 fans. 

Osijek was up 2:0 in the 12th minute thanks to goals by Lovric and Caktas. Perkovic and Galilea equalized in the 18th and 39th minutes for 2:2 at the half Neither team was able to score in the second half. 

Osijek has dropped to 3rd place with 65 points, while Istra is in 9th with 28. 

Lokomotiva v. Dinamo (1:1)

Lokomotiva and Dinamo closed out the 33rd round on Sunday, May 1, 2022, in Zagreb. 

Kulenovic put Lokomotiva in the lead with 1:0 in the 30th minute. Soldo scored an own goal for 1:1, which was the final score. 

Lokomotiva is in 5th place with 45 points, while Dinamo is in first with 70. 

You can see the HNL standings HERE. 

To read more about sports in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

May the 2nd, 2022 - The Colombian-Croatian startup Minka, the head of which is a former ''Infobiper'' from the wildly successful Vodnjan-based company, has recently received a huge cash injection.

As Jutarnji/Novac/Bernard Ivezic writes, new startups have already started emerging from the rather remarkable company Infobip. A good example is the Colombian-Croatian startup Minka, a fintech company which has just raised a huge 24 million US dollars in investments from two major investors, Tiger Global Management and Kaszek. In total, Minka has received 27.5 million dollars in investments so far.

Tiger Global Management is otherwise one of the largest and most active investors in startups. The assets of this American investment company are estimated at over 95 billion dollars, and its founder is New York billionaire Chase Coleman III. Kaszek, on the other hand, is the largest investment company in all of Latin America.

The Colombian-Croatian startup Mika is developing software to modernise the banking system. Its product is a cloud platform which bears the same name (Minka), and which functions like Lego bricks and enables the fast development of applications such as mobile wallets, loyalty programmes, clearing house settlement systems, and various types of infrastructure for central banks and digital banks themselves.

The Colombian-Croatian startup Minka allows both citizens and companies to exchange money between their bank accounts instantly, which, even here in Croatia, isn't yet a widespread standard.

Infobip as a starting point

In the background of Minka lies the much talked about blockchain technology, so its investment is also the largest in a blockchain startup from Croatian founders. Minka's partners are respectable, giant companies such as Google and Mastercard, and the latter is also its investor. Minka was jointly launched by Croatian Domagoj Rozic and Colombian Paola Sanchez. Rozic is the executive director, and Sanchez, who has extensive experience in finance, is the chief operative.

Domagoj Rozic was Infobip's main man for Latin America for almost three years, more precisely from 2013 to 2016. He ran a very important Infobip office in Colombia. He completed his education at MIOC, ie XV. Gymnasium in Zagreb, and then went on to study and graduate in computer science at FER. He started his career as an IT manager in the Control Bureau, then he was a training manager in the IT Centre Zagreb, a project manager in Adacta, and just before leaving for Colombia, he became a partner in Cognita.

He initially left Croatia back in 2011 when he took over the leading position of the British branch of the risk assessment company Drum Cussaca in Bogota. Two and a half years later, he moved to the local branch of Infobip, which us the first Croatian unicorn startup today. He started at Minka at the end of 2016, and the company formally introduces itself as a startup from Bogota, but is legally registered as a company in Delaware, USA.

The entire development of technology, as well as products for the Colombian-Croatian startup Minka, takes place right here in Croatia. Formally, back in February this year, Rozic even registered the company Minka IT in Zavrtnica in the centre of the City of Zagreb, as a subsidiary of its American parent company. There is a support and sales team in Bogota, Colombia. The startup has a total of 30 employees.

Google has nothing but praise for this company 

Google Cloud states that the Colombian-Croatian startup Minka is a platform that allows financial institutions to quickly move to so-called open banking, claiming that through Minka, digital financial services can be developed in mere days, not years. Google Cloud itself states that the whole solution can be upgraded within 10 minutes and then live testing can begin within a single day. These are very bold statements from Google, because the development of financial applications is usually measured in months and years, which only goes to show the level that Minka has reached.

The Colombian-Croatian startup Minka, on the other hand, says they want to become an open banking standard for cash-based economies.

''In most such economies, payment and infrastructure is mostly focused on credit card processing, and most transactions take place through clearing houses and cash agents that use what are now rather outdated concepts. The development of new interfaces takes months and years and forces fintechs to spend most of their resources on overcoming this obstacle. In addition, the payment system in such economies is largely fragmented. Minka simplifies everything,'' they explained from the Colombian-Croatian startup.

The largest open banking project in all of Latin America

As an example of what this form of modernisation looks like, Domagoj Rozic pointed out the Colombian clearing house ACH Columbia, with which they realised the Transifiya project in partnership. The largest banks in Colombia are connected to it, and this new settlement system, which uses Minika's technology in the background, now allows access to up to 80 percent of Colombia's bank accounts. This means that thanks to Minka, almost all Colombians can send money from account to account in real time, without waiting for the clearing house, for example, to transfer funds between banks twice a day on weekdays.

''This is the largest open banking project in Latin America,'' Rozic said.

Here in the Republic of Croatia, the counterpart of ACH Columbia would be the Financial Agency (Fina). Across the EU, a similar initiative, but through regulations, is being pushed by the European Commission (EC). The EC has adopted the PSD2 standard, which forces European Union-based financial institutions to evolve towards open banking. This opened the space for an explosion of different Croatian fintechs, as well as for the entry of some great foreign players.

In Europe, most work is being done on standardisation in this area within associations such as Open Banking UK and the Berlin Group, and in Croatia, recently more and more startups like Minka are exploring the opportunities they have gained and offering some brand new services - not only financial ones but also, for example, identity and digital signing services.

Finance as the first association

For Croatian startups, Colombia is a pretty decent place. Although the country itself has a reputation for a completely different industry and for being a politically very turbulent region, for Croatian startups, this South American country is best known for its financial industry. Infobip has built a strong presence over in Latin America thanks in large part to its Bogota branch. However, it should be remembered that the second Croatian unicorn, the Rimac Group, found its first investor in Colombia, at a time when no one in Croatia wanted to invest in Mate Rimac's business and barely even gave him a second glance.

Bogota’s business angel, Franck Christian Kanayet Yepes, despite the entry of major investors into Rimac’s business over the past few years, has remained active within the group and is today chairman of its supervisory board.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

May the 2nd, 2022 - Even though the company responsible for constructing the long awaited Peljesac bridge has been working day and night to get the massive project completed by the prescribed deadline, many of us thought the delays would just keep on rolling in for this gigantic Croatian and European Union project which will unite Croatian territory (the extreme south of Dalmatia and the rest of the country) to be completed.

It now seems that we can say with confidence that you'll finally be able to drive across the strategic project at the end of July this year.

Peljesac bridge, which will cut out the need for people driving to and from the extreme south of Dalmatia to cross into neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina and then back out again (more precisely through the town of Neum, that country's only piece of coastline), is often referred to as the most significant project since the declaration of Croatian independence.

As Morski writes, Peljesac Bridge is finally scheduled to open this July, along with most of the access roads which have been taking some time to get completed. An HRT team visited the site to look at what stage the works on the bridge were at and whether they were affected by the recent earthquakes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were most felt in the wider Dubrovnik area.

''According to the current plans and dynamics of the works, people will likely be able to drive across Peljesac bridge during the second half of July when the works on the access roads are completed,'' said Jeroslav Segedin, the project manager for the Peljesac Bridge - Croatian roads (Hrvatske ceste).

He added that the technical inspection of the bridge has been performed, and that some minor shortcomings were noticed, which have been eliminated over more recent days. As for the bridge itself as a construction, everything is completely finished now, he pointed out. He also referred to the most technically demanding part - the Ston bypass.

''The construction of the bridge near Ston has been set, welded, and now a concrete slab is set to be built. It is expected to take four months, so in October or November these works should also be completed,'' he said. Segedin said the recent earthquake in Bosnia and Herzegovina didn't affect Peljesac bridge or any of the ongoing works and finalisations.

''When calculating the load-bearing capacity and stability of the bridge structure, one of the parameters is the seismic load, which in this case was much higher than what the earthquake was. We were more worried about how the earthquake affected other facilities along the route - viaducts, the Ston bridge, tunnels, which are still in the construction phase and haven't yet been completed. Fortunately, no damage or indicators were noticed that would suggest that something unexpected may have happened with any of the above,'' concluded Segedin.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

May the 2nd, 2022 - The Croatian capital city of Zagreb is aiming to withdrawn the maximum amount of European Union (EU) cash possible in order to complete all of its planned projects.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the City of Zagreb is among 100 European Union cities and partner countries that will participate in the so-called ''mission of EU cities'', which aims to reduce the carbon footprint being caused in them to an absolute minimum by the year 2030, for which the European Union will allocate 350 million euros from the Horizon Europe programme. According to the European Commission (EC), 75 percent of EU citizens currently live in urban areas.

These areas account for more than 65 percent of the world's energy consumption, and thus more than 70 percent of its CO2 emissions. It is therefore important that cities such as Zagreb be ecosystems for experimentation and innovation to help everyone else in their transition become entirely climate-neutral by 2050. The European Commission will invite 100 selected cities, including Zagreb, to draw up climate agreements, which will include a general plan to achieve climate neutrality across all sectors.

Zorislav Antun Petrovic, President of the Environment Committee of the Zagreb City Assembly, claims that Zagreb is fully ready for the energy transition.

"A few months ago, we presented precisely how we see the green transition of Zagreb to the Committee. The focus is being placed on renewable energy sources, first of all numerous solar power plants on public buildings, and then on private ones, ecological transport, the energy efficiency of lighting - where a lot has already been carried out.

There is also green integrated planning, a centralised heating system, geothermal energy, an energy efficient block reconstruction of the city following the aftermath of the 2020 earthquake, sustainable social housing, a sustainable urban mobility and ZET as a green energy transit on the list, too,'' explained Petrovic, adding hat he is more than sure that Zagreb will be able to withdraw the maximum amount of funds for its planned projects from this EU project as well.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated politics section.