ZAGREB, 7 April 2022 - Croatian MPs on Thursday unanimously welcomed legislative amendments that will allow refugees from Ukraine to exercise the rights to healthcare and social welfare in Croatia.

Parliament is amending the law on the mandatory health insurance and healthcare of aliens and the law on social welfare.

There are more than 10,000 Ukrainian refugees in Croatia who have fled the Russian aggression and we have shown solidarity in various ways, but it's cleat the war won't end soon, so it's necessary to legally regulate their status, said Domagoj Hajduković of the Social Democrats.

Anka Mrak Taritaš of GLAS agreed, saying it was clear the war would not be short because "human lives mean nothing to the little dictator who started from the east."

"We must have special empathy towards these people and enable them to lead dignified lives," she added.

Besides receiving one-off financial assistance and accommodation, the refugees will be entitled to a minimum allowance, said Martina Vlašić Iljkić of the Social Democratic Party.

Urša Raukar Gamulin of the Green-Left Bloc commended the government's will to help the refugees from Ukraine.

"Croatia has reacted well in terms of taking in and accommodating the refugees and these (amendments) go in that direction as well," said Marijan Pavliček of the Sovereignists.

If necessary, Croatia must take in even more than 20,000 refugees because it has the money and the accommodation for it, he added.

Politics: For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 7 April 2022 - In the last 24 hours 1,242 coronavirus cases, out of 5,364 tests, and six related deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Thursday.

There are 8,641 active cases, including 591 hospitalised patients, 25 of whom are on ventilators, while 5,167 persons are self-isolating.

Croatia has registered 1,106,557 coronavirus cases to date and the death toll is 15,652.

To date, 59.45% of the population, that is 70.71% of adults, has been vaccinated, including 68.61% of adults fully.

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

ZAGREB, 7 April 2022 - Croatia's COVID-19 crisis management team stated on Thursday that COVID protocols would be abolished on Saturday and only the protective mask mandate remains in place in medical institutions and nursing homes.

Practically all the current restrictions imposed to curb the COVID-19 pandemic will be lifted at midnight Friday, said the team's head, Interior Minister Davor Božinović.

Wearing protective masks in public spaces will depend on individuals and sanctions will no longer be imposed for failure to wear masks, Božinović said, explaining that they are still obligatory in hospitals and care homes.

Entering Croatia

EU citizens can enter Croatia without any requirements, while those arriving from other countries are required to produce COVID certificates upon entering Croatia.

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

April 7, 2022 -  With just over a month to go until the innovative Work. Place. Culture. remote work conference in Dubrovnik, TCN continues its look at the list of high-class international speakers who will be sharing their wisdom in the Pearl of the Adriatic. Up next, we talk with Yvette Pelgrom, a globally accredited High Performance & Leadership Coach, Trainer and Psychotherapist, who empowers individuals and groups worldwide to heal, transform and redesign their lives.

A busy season for Croatia's digital nomad story is about to begin. Last year's highlights included the introduction of the digital nomad permit on January 1, 2021, and destinations such as Zagreb and Dubrovnik attracted global interest with award-winning events such as Zagreb Digital Nomad Week and Dubrovnik Nomads-in-Residence project.

Both Zagreb and Dubrovnik will continue their push to position themselves in the market in 2022, with Zagreb Digital Nomad Week 2022 set to take place in June, and a news conference before that in Dubrovnik, as previously reported on TCN: Work. Place. Culture.

Total Croatia News continues to present the elite lineup for the Work. Place. Culture., this time with Yvette Pelgrom. With her business, digital marketing and psychology background combined, Yve has built and scaled million dollar business programs and teams across EdTech companies like LinkedIn, TEDx and Mindvalley. On top, she's a globally accredited High Performance & Leadership Coach, Trainer and Psychotherapist, who empowers individuals and groups worldwide to heal, transform and redesign their lives.

For our readers not familiar with you, can you give us a quick introduction to yourself and the Lifebook Company and explain how and why it started. 

My name is Yvette Pelgrom but I love for anyone to simply say Yve/Ivy/Yves (unless I did something wrong) - much more human. I feel fortunate to have been raised trilingual and live & work across Europe, Africa and Asia. 

I founded Kynd in 2019 for which I facilitate coachings, interactive workshops, host deep-dive holistic retreats, lead meditation & movement events and get to 'keynote speak' for audiences up to 1.1K people (which absolutely still makes me feel uncomfortable. I'm -100% not made for the spotlight but +100% to help others thrive greatly). In addition, I love my job as Director of Lifebook Leaders at the Lifebook Company. This brilliant company gives hundreds of individuals globally the education, tools and accountability to design their extraordinary life across 12 categories. Here I get to run strategic program development and certify top-notch Leaders to positively impact millions of lives. And meanwhile, how fantastic is it that I constantly get reminded to intentionally design and live my life!

Aligned with the latter, currently my roots are in Amsterdam yet I'm roaming around Europe these months for work while I am transitioning to settle down majorly in Lisbon, Portugal. It feels time for some slower living alongside the ocean and with loved friends while still enjoying my typical nomadic bursts here and there for work and adventure.

Looking at the testimonials on the website, it seems you are really changing people's lives. Who are your typical clients and what are they looking for when they approach you?

I work with both individuals (especially women, leaders and entrepreneurs) and companies (eager to boost employee wellbeing and high performance). Ultimately, all our behavior has a logic and a background. Based on this psychotherapeutic holistic approach, I deep dive with clients to understand their behavioral- and emotional origins, help rewire their brain's neural pathways and guide them in adopting healthy and positive habits. 

Growth with my clients is accomplished through solving and expanding. Through solving, clients take charge of self sabotaging patterns like imposter syndrome, love attachment patterns, struggles in boundary setting, self care et cetera. Through expanding, they become proactively intentional on all life's aspects - designing their ideal health, social, love, career and all the way to living their best, thriving quality of life. Besides one-on-one work, I absolutely love hosting individuals at beautiful, unconventional retreats as well as training teams (e.g. TedX, Google, LinkedIn) around personal development and wellbeing. Common topics are around (lack of) focus and (mental) health, and so I also deal with high performers who excel at delivery but do so at a high price, such as loneliness, stress, (self)disconnect, burnout). In the end, I'm known to bring like-minded people together to truly connect and throw in high energy, humor and vulnerability!

The themes of wellbeing and life design are becoming more prominent in this crazy world. What trends are you seeing, and how do you expect this to develop over the next few years?

Trends of burnouts, paralysis and conquests on 'what truly matters'

These covid years definitely evoked changes in all areas of life. It disrupted people's routines, for many resulting in sadly less human connection, more screen time, less movement, worse food choices, breakups, job losses, financial hits, company breakdowns, etc. 

I've seen many fall - hard. Confronting and tough? Yes. Beautiful and vital? Double yes. I admire that the previous normalised way of working and living is being challenged at a global scale: there seems to now be a trend of reflections around 'what truly matters?'. This came to life fastly with the consequences of a results-driven, male-oriented society, such as burnouts and specifically, hormonal imbalances amongst women who are to carry the same workload as men but go through hormonal cycles with less testosterone to carry out.

New movement towards simplicity, mindfulness and purpose

I expect people to live increasingly more consciously aligned to their desires. Why grind when you can love life while working smart? I adore the increased attention of 'awakened' people to now proactively live up to their inward realisations by creating desired outward life experiences and lifestyle. Think of optimising quality of life by moving towards more nature, moving with dear friends to live near each other, building a better work-life balance and spending more time with loved ones for deeper connections. People are starting to prioritise well-being more and companies pick this up too, seeing their talent is their #1 priority and employee wellbeing significantly impacting business performance. 

And so to Dubrovnik, where you will be an ambassador in May. Tell us why you applied and what you are hoping to get out of the experience.

I'm grateful to have been invited to host morning sessions at the Dubrovnik conference and as keynote speaker in Zagreb. And meanwhile, indeed so excited to have been selected as an ambassador for beautiful Dubrovnik! My entire life I lived and worked across continents - Europe, Asia and Africa. One golden nugget I figured is that the greatest experiences happen when surrounding myself with kind hearted, like-minded people in environments with great energy and serenity simultaneously. These settings allowed me to enjoy life moments to the fullest before they became memories. Given that Dubrovnik offers an idyllic combination of city buzz, serene ocean feels, beautiful nature sceneries and a blend of lovely locals and like-minded digital nomads - an absolute gift to experience May and June here. Plus, in contrast to my partly Dutch roots (go-go-go mode!), I am very excited to experience the more laid-back intentional lifestyle with the locals and who knows, get enamoured by the local cuisine. 

You will be running morning wellness workshops on the idyllic island of Lokrum. Tell us more. 

"How you start your morning defines the tone of your day". As part of optimal wellbeing and high performance, your mental-, physical- and emotional health is vital. In fact, your health is your biggest wealth. Your energy should thrive first in order to succeed in any other area in life. During my morning workshops, participants experience tweaks to integrate into their daily mornings as high performance habits to set themselves up for happiness, energy and laserfocus for the rest of the day. These practices are neuroscientifically proven to increase focus, productivity, positivity, confidence, clarity, energy etc. What will we do? Come, experience and enjoy!

You will also be joining us at Zagreb Digital Nomad Week in June, so your commitment to Croatia is impressive. Tell us about your relationship until now and your impressions on the progress it is making on its remote work journey. 

Excited to speak in Zagreb! It looks to be a phenomenal two months in May and June given all activities lined up, with a fantastic like-minded community while exploring mesmerising Croatia! From what I've seen, I'm impressed on how Croatia provides such attention to creating an inspiring space to remote work, connect and live like a local rather than contribute to overtourism. From a 12 month digital nomad visa all the way to bringing them together in these conferences to learn and laugh with each other.

You can learn more about Yvette and connect through all her networks on Linktree and on LinkedIn.

You can download the full programme of the Work.Place.Culture Conference in Dubrovnik here.

Work. Place. Culture. is a collaboration between the City of Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik Tourist Board, Saltwater Nomads and TCN, with support from the Digital Nomad Association Croatia and Dubrovacka Bastina. Zagreb Digital Nomad Week is a partnership between Zagreb Tourist Board, Saltwater Nomads, and TCN. 

To learn more about magnificent Dubrovnik, check out the Total Croatia Dubrovnik in a Page guide, in partnership with Sun Gardens Dubrovnik.  

For more news and features on digital nomads in Croatia, follow the dedicated TCN section.

April the 7th, 2022 - The new Zagreb Algebra campus worth a massive 110 million kuna has now opened its doors, becoming the largest of all to date.

TCN was there to celebrate the new campus opening on Wednesday. The impressive new Zagreb Algebra campus spans more than 12,000 square metres, making it the largest campus in the City of Zagreb and indeed in all of Croatia, worth 110 million kuna. That sum makes it the largest private investment made in a Croatian education institution yet.

The campus is located in Gradišćanska street, in the Črnomerec neighbourhood of Zagreb, close to their previous location. Almost 200 full-time employees will work in this modern and technologically up to date equipped space on several floors, 1,600 students will study and about 12,000 students will attend their many programmes annually. The plans for the future are quite ambitious, as they plan to enrol 70% more students by 2026, including 500 international students.

The new, modern campus includes everything a modern educational institution in the field of IT needs: in addition to the 35 lecture halls, equipped with almost 700 computers, laser projectors, and audio equipment. The lecture halls are named after famous Croatian inventors and scientists, such as Nikola Tesla, Faust Vrančić, Slavoljub Penkala, Ivan Vučetić etc. You can read more about them on Total Croatia. There are additional 14 studies exclusively for online education of the students anywhere in Croatia. There is a modern Art Room to help develop students' creativity and audio-visual skills, as well as a video and audio studio and an innovation laboratory. An international testing centre was accredited where it will be possible to get various international certificates from providers such as Microsoft, AWS, Google, PMI, TOEFL, and others. Interestingly, the building of the new campus was designed to be as energy-efficient as possible, and all employees are encouraged to commute to work by bikes or scooters, and appropriate infrastructure for them is installed.

The three founders of Algebra, who are today members of the Management Board, Hrvoje Balen and Tomislav Dominiković, as well as Dean Mislav Bakalović, emphasised at the opening of the new campus that they are thus marking the 24th anniversary of Algebra (which has been around since back in 1998). They noted that this is a new professional chapter for them, in which they will strive to continue working so that people become better and bring greater competitiveness to the labour market.

In everything, said Balen, the cooperation and support of the business community, entrepreneurs and employers and what they need from education is important, but above all the commitment for students to do what they love and strive to become the very best at it. He said that it was important for the Republic of Croatia to create the proper and fair conditions for homegrown talent to remain in it, and their goal was to increase the number of foreign students in their programmes as well.

For more, check out our lifestyle section, or find out more about studying in Croatia in a Total Croatia article.

April 7, 2022 - The Gault & Millau Croatia 2022 awards for the best restaurants and chefs were presented at a gala dinner at the Emerald Hall of the Esplanade Hotel, where more than 100 leading chefs of Croatian restaurants gathered on Tuesday, April 5. 

According to the gastronomic guide Gault & Millau Croatia, the chef of the year is Ana Grgić Tomić, chef of Zinfandel’s and Le Bistro at Zagreb’s Hotel Esplanade. The 'best chefs of tomorrow' trophy were won by three chefs - Michael Gollenz from the Alfred Keller restaurant at the Alhambra Hotel on the island of Lošinj, Nikola Marušić from the PiNKU Fish & Wine restaurant in Split, and Stiven Vunić, chef and owner of Zijavica restaurant in Mošćenička Draga.

The trophy for the best chef of traditional cuisine went to Nebojsa Rajković from the restaurant Čingi Lingi čarda in Bilje, while Ana Morgan from the restaurant Morgan in Brtonigla won the best chef of new traditional cuisine. The young talent of the year trophy was won by Matea Jurec, chef of the Loora restaurant in Đakovo, and Marko Jantolek, chef of the Matrix restaurant in Zagreb.

Daniela Kramarić, owner of the restaurant Plavi podrum in Volosko, was awarded for promoting Croatian gastronomy and oenology. The restaurant Martinis Marchi on the island of Šolta won for the best service. Pandora Greenbox restaurant from Split won for the best POP bar.

In the category of the best restaurants, the following were awarded: 360 Dubrovnik and its chef Marijo Curić, restaurant Monte in Rovinj and chef Danijel Đekić, Zagreb's NAV and chef Tvrtko Šakota, Šibenik's Pelegrini and owner and chef Rudolf Štefan, restaurant Pergola in Zambratija and owner and chef Fabricio Vežnaver and Zinfandel's at Esplanade Hotel in Zagreb and chef Ana Grgić Tomić.

The awards for the best restaurants and chefs were presented at a gala dinner at the Emerald Hall of the Esplanade Hotel, where more than 100 leading chefs of Croatian restaurants gathered on Tuesday, April 5. On that occasion, the fifth edition of the bilingual international gastronomic guide was presented, which included 265 Top restaurants, 105 POP-popular bars (bistros, street food, snack bars, patisseries), and 105 wines from all over Croatia.

Launched in 1965 in France, this established international guide is present in eighteen countries around the world and is a strong impetus for promoting the restaurant scene and national gastronomy in the domestic and foreign markets. Chef's caps printed on a recognizable yellow sticker guarantee proven quality. The listed restaurants and chefs are a strong incentive to develop creativity and improve services in the hospitality and hotel industry. From the initial 150 restaurants and POPs included in the first edition of the Gault & Millau Croatia guide, this number has increased to 370 restaurants and POPs in five years.

"We are proud that the great effort and work we invest in the production of this guide and the promotion of Croatian gastronomy is recognized by chefs and guests on the domestic and international scene. We are delighted that a new generation of young chefs has grown in the past year, who approach gastronomy and create exciting dishes with a lot of passion and curiosity. We intend to encourage them to persevere in improving quality and remain committed to the dishes, wines, and authentic foods of their region. We want to thank our permanent partners - CNTB and food and wine producers who support us and believe in the strength and quality of Croatian gastronomy," said Ingrid Badurina Danielsson, director of Gault & Millau Croatia.

The guests of the gala ceremony were especially greeted by Tessa Chaffey - Director of Gault & Millau International, Monika Udovičić - Envoy of the Minister of Tourism, and Slavija Jačan Obratov - Director of the Sector for Tourist Board and Product Development in CNTB.

At the Gault & Millau Croatia ceremony, Raise the Bar Foundation scholarships were presented to young chefs, pastry chefs, and restaurant staff to improve their skills at the world's best universities. Raise the Bar is a platform of Coca-Cola HBC Croatia, and its goal is to increase the quality of the workforce in the hospitality and tourism industry. Valuable scholarships were won by Rok Smonkar - chef at Gostinstvo Jezeršek, Monika Gubić - an employee at ManO restaurant, Marija Prša - an employee at Dubravkin put restaurant, and Ante Kapović, who interned in numerous local restaurants during his studies. The members of the jury were chefs Marko Gajski, Tomaž Kavčič, Igor Gudac, Bruno Vokal, Nihad Mameledžija, and sommelier Ivan Jug. The awards were presented to the scholarship recipients by Ruža Tomić Fontana, General Manager of Coca-Cola HBC for Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, and Slovenia, and Filip Verbanac - Director of the Department for Spirits and Coffee. The students of Raise the Bar Academy demonstrated their skills in preparing the Botanist cocktail Raise the Glass and Islay Basil. In addition, they drank Veuve Clicquot Brut champagne for an aperitif and tasted President's mature Ribanac.

The gala dinner was prepared by chefs Ana Grgić Tomić and Stefan Heilemann, chef of Widder Restaurant Zurich, awarded 2 Michelin** and 4 Gault & Millau points, and named Gault & Millau Chef of the Year in Switzerland 2021. Six courses were served with top wines from the Laguna, Belje, Krauthaker, and Veralda wineries.

The trophies were presented to the best chefs and restaurants by representatives of partner companies that supported the promotion of the new Gault & Millau Croatia guide: Fabris Peruško - CEO of Forten Group, Zoran Šimunić - CEO of Naše Klasje - Aurelia, Iva Kuhtić - Marketing Director of Dukat, Goran Gaćina - CEO Dukat brand and Tomislav Smolčec - a member of the Metro Management Board.

Frano Ridjan led the award ceremony, and the great atmosphere of the Croatian gastronomic community was a great introduction to the new tourist season. Gault & Millau Croatia 2022 gastronomic guide is also available on the website hr.gaultmillau.com and at Tisak points for 120 kuna.

For more, check out our lifestyle section. 

April the 7th, 2022 - The Cetina river basin is being explored for its potential energy properties as alternative energy sources are sought following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine has caused a sharp rise in energy prices from fossil sources, and consequently others. The current situation and trends here in Croatia once again work to remind us of the short-sightedness of the Croatian authorities when it comes to the country's national energy policy, reports Slobodna Dalmacija.

Over more recent years, HEP's new production facilities have been reduced to power plants in Zagreb and Osijek and only one hydropower plant with a capacity of about 40 megawatts, and only today is HEP entering wind and solar power projects without state incentives because, according to the public statements of its main people, even without incentives the production of electricity from wind and solar is economically viable, ie profitable.

In such circumstances, one should look with great optimism at the possible construction of new high-power hydropower plants, such as the potential ones on the Cetina river basin in Otok and in Bitelic.

As things stand today, the resources provided by the wind and the sun are huge and are only just beginning to be used. It is very likely, especially due to the proclaimed anti-fossil energy policy, that the amount of energy produced from these sources here in Croatia will grow steadily. Therefore, it will be necessary to provide in parallel current reserves capable of rescuing the system when unsustainable sources do end up failing.

As such, it isn't really questionable whether the ideas on the construction of reversible hydropower plants (RHE) called 'Blaca' (in Otok) and 'Vrdovo' (in Hrvace), which have long outgrown the idea in operationalisation, will be realised, but for now, the only unknown is just when it will happen.

Locals reacted with displeasure to the recently kicked off HEP geomechanical testing of the soil along the Cetina river basin, more precisely near the village of Gale, where the lower pool of the (as yet) imaginary RHE 'Blaca' would be. HEP's public relations department publicly responded to their understandable protest, stating:

''The Cetina river basin has long since grown into a Croatian hydropower giant. Five hydroelectric power plants are successfully producing electricity on the left side of the river, with a total installed capacity of more than 970 MW, and two future RHE installed electricity factories on the left bank of the Cetina river would exceed a fantastic 2,000 megawatts.

And that, for sure, won't even be the final figure. If in the future the main energy source is wind and solar power, which will be necessary due to the need to substitute Russian natural gas and energy in general from fossil sources, it is certain that new RHEs will be built on the Cetina river basin because there are some extremely favourable natural conditions in that area,'' they stated.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

April the 7th, 2022 - Relaxations to current Croatian covid measures, which are already fairly loose, are set to occur as the Easter period approaches.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the new Croatian covid measures, or more precisely the measures which are set to be relaxed, haven't yet been officially defined, but should be agreed by Easter, when some concessions are planned.

According to Jutarnji list's interlocutors, Croatian covid measures related to limiting the number of people both indoors and outdoors, would be almost completely abolished. Covid certificates would no longer be required. Measures at the country's borders will remain as they are, in line with European Union (EU) decisions.

Most of the conversations taking place at the moment are about the basic Croatian covid measures, and that is wearing masks, which are currently an obligation in all indoor spaces. According to the currently prevailing view, masks would remain an obligation indoors where more people are expected to be, such as in shops and when using public transport. But it is likely that in the workplace, where it is currently mandatory to wear masks if it isn't possible to maintain the prescribed distance (two metres between individuals), it will become a mere recommendation.

In addition, there is a possibility that wearing masks in cinemas and theatres will remain at the level of a recommendation. There is an increasingly probable possibility that caterers will havethe right to use their full capacities from the pre-pandemic period and to abolish the obligatory spaces between tables.

''We believe that this is a moment that enables the greater mitigation of Croatian covid measures, and for several reasons. First of all, there are indicators from hospitals, ie a decrease in the number of hospitalised and people on respirators. We're also recording a decline in the number of newly infected people, and the fact that people will be spending more and more time outdoors. All of this is favourable,'' explained the interlocutor of Jutarnji list, pointing out that everything should be approached with caution because, he says, we have learned that the novel coronavirus can be unpredictable, but the current situation is in favour of loosening up and returning to a more normal life.

Additional concessions, according to the Ministry of Science and Education, would be in schools and colleges. Masks would no longer be required in the hallways, and professors and teaches wouldn't have to wear them unless they wanted to.

Despite the concessions, sources say, there are no plans to stop warning people about the possibility of spreading the infection, so the recommendation to wear a mask will be emphasised. In addition, hygiene, maintaining a distance and ventilation, they say, should be respected. Croatia had mild measures for most of the coronavirus pandemic, but now European countries which had more strict measures are also abolishing them. The UK was among the first to do so, where measures against the spread of the disease are virtually non-existent. In Switzerland, the obligation to wear masks in public transport and health facilities has also been abolished.

At the same time, while the measures are being relaxed, the profession is warning of a new strain of the Omicron variant, the so-called XE, which is said to spread 43 percent faster than the original Omicron, but fortunately doesn't appear to cause more severe forms of the disease.

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