ZAGREB, 24 Feb 2022 - The Croatian parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday unanimously adopted a declaration on Ukraine strongly condemning Russia's unprovoked aggression on its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence.

The declaration states that the Croatian parliament calls on Russia to immediately stop the military attack and withdraw its troops from Ukrainian territory.

The parliament also condemns the recognition of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent entities because that act represents a gross violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and undermines the foundations of the international order.

It is also said that it gives full support to the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.

The parliament expresses full solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and calls on the Croatian government to provide humanitarian and technical assistance.

Committee President Gari Cappelli said they were also aware of the economic consequences the conflict would have on the Croatian economy, especially on tourism since many Ukrainian people spend their summer holidays in Croatia, which could cost the budget €350 million.

Unofficially, Croatia will accept several thousands of refugees from Ukraine.

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ZAGREB, 24 Feb 2022 - Croatian Tourism Association director Veljko Ostojić said on Thursday that after two years of the pandemic, the latest events in Ukraine brought another period of insecurity and uncertainty.

Any war situation, regardless of the vicinity, deters from travel, he told Hina, adding that at the moment it is impossible to predict how the Russia-Ukraine crisis will impact Croatia's tourism.

He said one could expect bookings on the main markets to slow down in the days ahead, but is confident in last-minute bookings as in the last two years.

Croatia's big advantage is that it's predominantly an auto destination and very safe, which will be important in preparing for the summer season, Ostojić said.

The Croatian Tourist Board (HTZ), which has an office in Moscow covering Ukraine as well, told Hina that next week more would be known about the impact of Russia's attack on Ukraine on travel from the two countries. The Tourism Ministry concurred.

According to HTZ data, 145,000 Russians visited Croatia in 2021, generating 800,000 nights, respectively 94% and 80% of the figures registered in 2019, a record year for Croatia's tourism.

Ukrainians generated 146,000 arrivals and 857,000 nights, respectively 4% and 2% more than in 2019.

This year to date 2,000 Ukrainians visited Croatia, generating 12,000 nights, up 47% and 53% on the year respectively.

 For more on travel in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 24 Feb 2022 - Economy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said on Thursday Croatia's supply with key energy sources was not in question despite the escalation of the Ukraine crisis and that if prices continued to increase over a longer period of time, the government would consider how to respond.

Speaking to the press after a cabinet session, Ćorić said the supply with gas and oil "has not been brought into question at all" at the moment and that "everything will be under control."

"We hope the war operations will cease and things be brought in order, " he added. "That's what we want for Europe and the world, and first and foremost for the Ukrainian people."

As for the economic situation, Ćorić said it would depend on the energy market. The gas price on the reference market has gone up 31% since yesterday and that of a barrel of Brent oil by 6%, he said.

The minister said those rises "will definitely" impact consumer goods. "However, that is something on which we can't have significant influence at the moment."

He hopes the Ukraine-Russia escalation, and consequently the escalation of energy prices, will be short-lived. The government's measures to buffer the blow of energy price hikes take effect on 1 April.

Asked what sanctions Croatia would impose on Russia and what that would mean for Croatia's economy, exporters and tourism, Ćorić said Croatia would follow other EU member states.

The economic consequences of the crisis will be proportionate to its duration, he said, adding that one could not expect the European and Croatian economies to function normally if the "horrors of war" continued.

Energy prices, which largely depend on Russia's aggression on Ukraine, "dictate the tempo on all other markets" and Croatia, as a small and open economy, can't avoid that, Ćorić said.

As for the Fortenova company, one of whose owners is Russia's Sberbank, he said it had a number of owners, that it used international markets for financing, and that he did not expect any sanctions against the financial sector to affect the company's liquidity and functioning.

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ZAGREB, 24 Feb 2022 - The Croatian government has adopted a draft decision on deploying up to 10 Croatian soldiers in the NATO Response Force (NRF), the defense ministry stated on Thursday when Russia started invading Ukraine.

The draft decision has been forwarded to President Zoran Milanović, the supreme commander of the armed forces, for adoption, the press release reads.

According to Defence Minister Mario Banožić, Croatian troops will be part of the "Very High Readiness Joint Task Force" (VJTF) within the alliance's Response Force.

That means that they will be ready within a few days.

During the Prague summit in 2002, NATO decided on the establishment of its Response Force, and the Wales summit in 2014 decided on the set-up of VJTF.

In 2015, Croatia's parliament adopted decisions that paved the way for the deployment of Croatian soldiers in those units.

Earlier today, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that the alliance had activated its defense plans on the deployment of additional forces in NATO's eastern members.

"Today, the North Atlantic Council decided to activate our defense plans, at the request of our top military commander, General Tod Wolters," Stoltenberg said and added that he has "called a virtual Summit of NATO leaders tomorrow, to address the way forward."

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ZAGREB, 24 Feb 2022 - Education Minister Radovan Fuchs on Thursday said that students and teachers would no longer be required to wear masks during lessons as of Monday and that restrictions related to excursions and outdoor lessons would be relaxed.

"As we announced, as of next week masks will no longer be required during classes," Minister Fuchs told reporters after the cabinet meeting, adding that the decision was coordinated with the Croatian Public Health Institute and epidemiologists.

Masks will still be required in public transport and hallways in schools.

Wearing protective masks will no longer be mandatory for teachers, many of whom are vaccinated and who are also tested for coronavirus.

This decision comes after implementing self-testing of students, the minister underscored. In the first week of self-testing, almost 2,000 asymptomatic positive cases were identified and now there is barely some twenty-odd.

Self-testing of students will continue but there won't be any self-isolation, he said.

Instructions will be published today or tomorrow, said Fuchs, adding that measures regarding excursions and outdoor lessons will be relaxed.

He added that children can continue to wear masks if their parents wish them to and also it is recommended that children with underlying conditions should continue to wear masks.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated sectionand select your preferred language if it isn't English

ZAGREB, 24 Feb 2022 - Prices in Croatia increased by 43.4% from 2001 to 2021 while utility bills were 85% more expensive and inflation affected pensioners and single households the most.

In January, inflation accelerated by 5.6% in the European Union and by 5.1% in the euro area. In Croatia, inflation also picked up at the start of this year to 5.5% from December's 5.2%.

The highest inflation rates in the EU were registered in the Baltic countries while the majority of countries in central and eastern Europe had inflation rates of above 6% and close to 9%. The prices of gas and energy will probably not settle down for some time yet and the majority of citizens will be faced with lower living standards.

Inflation is worst for pensioners, single parents, and low-income households, according to a survey by the Zagreb Institute of Economics (EIZ) conducted this week.

The EIZ says that in the period between 2001 and 2021 prices in Croatia increased by only 43.4%. Food prices increased by 47%, alcohol was 134% more expensive and expenditure on healthcare doubled in price. Utility bills jumped by 85% in that period while telecommunication costs fell by 5% and footwear and clothing expenses by 10%.

The survey showed that inflation did not affect all groups equally. In the past two decades, the pensioner inflation rate was 9.3 percentage points higher than the reference rate, inflation was 10.44 pp higher for single households, while inflation for 10 percent of the richest people was slightly less than 2 pp lower than the average.

"Figuratively speaking, a pensioner household with monthly expenses of HRK 4,000 in 2001 paid HRK 6,107 for the same shopping basket 20 years later while the reference inflation rate suggests that their shopping basket should have cost HRK 5,735," the EIZ said.

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ZAGREB, 24 Feb 2022 - Croatia should work on the political education of its young people because they are not taught enough about the European Union's structure and policies before their school-leaving exam, a panel was told in Zagreb on Thursday.

The panel, entitled "The EU and Youth - Communication Noise", was devoted to communication between the EU institutions and citizens, in particular young people.

Many citizens are not acquainted with the responsibilities of the European Parliament, European Commission, European Council, and the Council of the European Union, and young people in Croatia are no exception, even though they have been living in the EU for nine years now.

Sunčana Glavak, a Croatian member of the European Parliament from the European People's Party group, said that changes to the education system were needed so that young people learned which EU institution was responsible for what.

"I think it is too late, for example, for political sciences students to learn about the EU's political system in the final year of their undergraduate program. By comparison, while I was in secondary school, we were taught a lot about the system of the country I was living in at the time," she told young journalists at the panel, referring to the former Yugoslavia.

Former Green MEP Davor Škrlec said that for a long time there had been a prevailing opinion among the citizens that "everything is in the hands of the European Commission, while the European Parliament is just some sort of nuisance, which of course is not true."

"Young people experience the European Union only at university, through the Erasmus Programme. They should be informed about EU policies earlier and should be given a chance to say what bothers them and how they can resolve a certain problem," Škrlec said.

Young people should be encouraged to think about and discuss current problems and future challenges, the panel was told.

Glavak also raised the issue of the language used by EU politicians and institutions, which is often unintelligible to the public in general and puts them off from following EU policies. "Politicians should simplify their language. We are stuck in archaic forms of communication, and young people have no time for that," she noted.

Nikica Stijepić, a student at the Faculty of Political Sciences, said he agreed that the names of the EU institutions were confusing, but that a priority should be given to programs that would inform young people about European topics, such as the European Youth Parliament.

"Through the European Youth Parliament I had a chance to learn about problems my colleagues from other countries were thinking about," Stijepić said.

Last year the EU institutions launched a Conference on the Future of Europe to get closer to the citizens and hear their ideas about the direction in which the Union should be developing. In September, 800 randomly selected Europeans were invited to four panels and three discussions to adopt recommendations for the EU institutions as to what they expected from the European alliance.

This panel within the Conference on the Future of Europe was organized by Hina in cooperation with Radio Student and Global, the newspaper of political sciences students.

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ZAGREB, 24 Feb 2022 - Croatia will support the sanctions against Russia and is ready to provide Ukraine with humanitarian and technical assistance, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Twitter on Thursday, calling on Russia to halt its military operations.

"We will support the sanctions package and are ready to provide humanitarian and technical assistance to Ukraine," the Croatian PM wrote, calling on Russia to immediately stop its military operations that put innocent people in danger.

Plenković met with Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Kyrylych on Thursday morning, saying that "the Croatian government condemns in the strongest terms Russia's invasion and aggression on Ukraine."

"This is a direct attack on democracy, international law, and Ukraine's sovereignty," he added.

The Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs tweeted that it was following the situation in Ukraine and exchanging information with other countries.

The Croatian Embassy in Ukraine is in contact with Croatian nationals and stands at their service for any consular and other assistance, the Ministry said.

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