750,000 Tourists Currently in Croatia, Istrian Cities Proving Hit
August the 31st, 2021 - The Croatian tourist season just keeps on going despite the predictions we had earlier on in the year. With numbers rising to almost pre-pandemic levels and foreign arrivals having a much easier time entering Croatia than before, September is looking great and several Istrian cities are a particular hit at the moment.
While the vaccination rollout in Croatia might still leave quite a bit to be desired for, the tourist season has been excellent so far, with the announcements as we head into September also looking more than promising. The favourable epidemiological situation is likely to continue as long as all of the measures that remain in place are properly adhered to.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, according to the latest data from Croatia's eVisitor system, there are about 750,000 tourists currently holidaying in the country, of which about 650,000 are non-resident foreign nationals. Most of them are Germans, followed by other Croatian tourists visiting different places across the country, as reported by HRT.
The most visited cities are the Istrian cities of Rovinj, Porec and Umag. After that, most tourists can be found in the Split-Dalmatia, Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Zadar counties.
These figures represent encouraging growth of as much as 67 percent when compared to last year and the current state is only 15 percent less than the record year of 2019. As long as nothing changes drastically in regard to the currently very favourable Croatian epidemiological situation, the post-season could be above all expectations, bringing a very welcome sigh of relief for all those in the hospitality and tourism sector who more than likely believed such success would never come.
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Hope for Uljanik Shipyard as New Vessel Construction Announced
August the 31st, 2021 - The enfeebled Uljanik shipyard could have some hope on the horizon for it yet, as more vessel constructions are announced and Economy Minister Tomislav Coric pays a visit.
As Morski writes, after numerous issues, protests, bankruptcies and the many shed tears of its workers, the Uljanik shipyard (Uljanik shipbuilding 1856) proverbially sails on, slowly, but sailing nonetheless. Yesterday morning, the Minister of Economy Tomislav Coric also visited the previously deeply troubled Pula shipyard.
The Uljanik shipyard claims that after the creation of the new administration, they successfully fulfilled all of their previous plans.
''Today we received support for the completion of the ships currently under construction, livestock 526 and another ship under the sections of number 531. If we manage to find a buyer and sell these new vessels at a positive price, or at market price according to the model done by Maj 3 (a Rijeka shipyard), the state will continue to offer a guarantee, as it does with the Rijeka shipyard,'' said the director of Uljanik Shipbuilding 1856, Samir Hadzic.
''The Uljanik shipyard is slowly rising, a small ship has been contracted, but that still represents a step is in the direction of shipbuilding. We talked about the prospects and some new orders. The state is helping out, we've given a loan guarantee for the construction of a fishing boat of over five million euros. The state will continue to be there, but above all through the promotion of healthy shipbuilding, which is based on market foundations, which is very important and which hasn't been the case in the past.
About 200 workers have been hired, which is satisfying and is a base with which to move forward, and when the time comes, the number will grow for larger ships. We must be careful not to put ourselves in a situation where the activity goes beyond the market framework,'' said Coric.
In addition to the construction of the aforementioned ships, the Uljanik shipyard also performs other tasks in its domain.
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Zlatko Dalić Ahead of Croatia's 2022 World Cup Qualifiers: Luka is Impossible to Replace
August 30, 2021 - September is nearly here, meaning Croatia's 2022 World Cup qualifiers are upon us. Coach Zlatko Dalić spoke to the press ahead of the first match against Russia on Wednesday.
The Croatia national football team has arrived in Moscow, where the first of three September matches will take place. Croatia will face Russia on Wednesday to continue the 2022 World Cup in Qatar qualification cycle, reports HNS.
Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić fondly remembers the beautiful memories of Moscow and the historical silver but is aware of the fact that one cannot live from old glory in football.
"Three years have passed since the World Cup in Russia, but that is now behind us. Of course, it is nice to come here and remember everything we experienced. Still, our new task is the qualifying match against Russia, and we are focused exclusively on that," says Zlatko Dalić, who once again explained the choice of players against Russia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
“I stand behind this list. I have chosen players who play in their clubs and are in shape. I wouldn’t talk about names and specifically explain why I didn’t call someone, but no one was written off or crossed out. If those who are not there now are in shape and play in their clubs, maybe they will be with us again. This is a team that I believe can get a good result in these three games. How many points will be enough for us for Qatar? According to some of my calculations, we will need 20 or 21 for the first place, which means that we have to catch another 14, 15 in the next seven games."
Before the September matches, Dalić was first left without the captain and best player, Luka Modrić, due to an adductor injury. Then the news followed that Ante Budimir would miss at least the first match.
"It is impossible to replace Luka, but that is why all other players have to take on a greater amount of responsibility, especially the more experienced ones. One player cannot replace Luka, but everyone else must take on more responsibilities. It will be difficult for us without Luka and his help, but we have to get used to it. Luka will not be with us forever; I believe we will replace him as a team because we cannot change him according to the chess - 'figure for figure.' The midfield line? We will see, there is Brozović, Modrić, Pašalić, and Vlašić, and we will look for solutions among them. Again, Ivanušec is in good shape; our midfield must not and will not be a problem. Of course, Luka is difficult to replace, but I'm not afraid; I believe in this team."
Several Croatia members are currently in the middle of club transfers, which can be a problem ahead of important matches.
"Yes, that is a problem, their heads are in transfers, they have a lot of inquiries and information, and it is difficult for them to concentrate, and that worries us. Fortunately, Vlašić has finished his, he is on his way from London to Moscow, but they all have to forget the transfers and turn to the match against Russia. So my meeting with the players today will be in that direction. I know that these are their careers and lives, but now we are only interested in Russia."
When it comes to Russia, the team has undergone significant changes compared to the one that played the World Cup quarterfinals against Croatia.
"Russia plays differently than in 2018 or at this year's Euro, which is logical considering that they have a new coach. Before, they looked for Juba with long balls. Karpin cultivates a different style, looking for a passing play in a 4-3-3 formation. We prepared for that; I spoke a lot with Olić, Ćorluka, and Pletikosa. Russia will not surprise us. This match is crucial to them; they allowed 20,000 spectators to be in the stands, we have a hard job ahead of us, but I believe that we will respond with aggression, fighting spirit, and energy," concluded the Croatia coach.
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Agreement on Project Documentation for 288 Houses in Quake-Hit Banovina
ZAGREB, 30 Aug 2021 - Central State Reconstruction and Housing Office state secretary Gordan Hanžek said, after a meeting of the task force dealing with the aftermath of last year's quakes on Monday, that they had agreed on drafting project documentation for 288 houses.
"It is for houses issued a yellow or red label, which are designated for reconstruction. Project documentation for the construction of standard replacement facilities has been contracted. Those are 55-, 70- and 85-square-metre buildings, for two-, three- or four-member and multi-member households. Contracts have been signed and you will be informed about their content," Hanžek said.
He added that two solutions were planned - for rural and urban buildings. According to Hanžek, the project will first be presented to the owners, who will choose between two available types of buildings. Either type can be prefabricated or traditionally constructed, depending on the owners' wishes. Of course, the construction period is shorter for prefabricated buildings, while the deadline will be slightly longer for traditional masonry construction.
"We expect the first contracts for the construction of replacement houses by the end of the year," Hanžek said.
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Int'l Bjelovar Autumn Fair Expects about 300 Exhibitors
ZAGREB, 30 Aug 2021 - The Bjelovar Autumn Fair, which will be held from 3 to 5 September at the Gudovac fair compounds, will include 300 exhibitors.
Local authorities and the fair's executives told a press conference on Monday that the state exhibition of cattle will be held with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The fair will be opened by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
The exhibition will be held outdoors considering epidemiological recommendations.
Entry to the fair will require a COVID certificate of vaccination or negative test, and testing will be available at the fairgrounds. The fair's director Zlatko Salaj estimates that this year's autumn fair would reach about 60% of the level of the record 2019 year.
Bjelovar-Bilogora County Prefect Marko Marušić described the Autumn Fair as a Croatian brand.
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SSSH: Collective Deals Enable Greatest Number of Additional Days to Annual Leave
ZAGREB, 30 Aug 2021 - The SSSH union federation warned on Monday that the analysis by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has indicated that Croatia workers, similar to those in Germany, benefit from collective bargaining most when it comes to annual leave.
"The ETUC analysis shows that Croatian and German workers benefit the most from collective bargaining when it comes to the length of annual leave, or the number of additional days of paid leave. In working units where national and branch collective agreements are applied, Croatian and German workers have an average of ten days more annual leave than the legal minimum," the union said in a press release.
The union underlined that workers covered by a collective agreement on average have 24.5 days of annual leave compared to 21.5 days for workers without collective agreements.
Collective agreements only applied in public sector, construction and partially in tourism
SSSH leader Mladen Novosel said the ETUC analysis only covered some sectors such as the public sector, and construction and partially tourism in the private sector.
The unions are intensively working on reviving collective bargaining in other sectors and expect the government to recognise the benefits of collective bargaining for society.
The ETUC and SSSH called on national governments and EU institutions to ensure all workers benefit from collective bargaining and warned that the number of workers covered by collective bargaining has been falling since 2000.
"The European Parliament will mull over a draft directive this autumn related to the minimum wage which foresees that all member states where workers' coverage with collective bargaining is less than 70%, should prepare a national action plan to help achieve that level of coverage," the press release said.
Deputy ETUC secretary-general Esther Lynch underscores that the EU has to be more resolute and efficient so that all workers can exercise the right of collective bargaining.
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Digital Activism Solidarity School: Teaching Young People Digital Literacy
August 30, 2021 - If you want to learn more about navigating fake news and contributing to the battle against misinformation, you might want to apply for the Digital Activism Solidarity School in Kaštel Kambelovac. Here's how you can apply by September 10, 2021.
Summer education programmes aren't unusual in Croatia, as TCN reported earlier in May, the five-day Summer Business School organised by Step-Ri Science-Technology Park and the American Embassy in Croatia in June attracted business enthusiasts and entrepreneurs to Rijeka to learn more about the field.
In the final rays of summer 2021, from September 24-26, another education programme will bring its students to learn in the cozy Mediterranean environment of Kaštel Kambelovac. The Digital Summer School, organised by the SOLIDARNA Foundation, aims to promote digital and media literacy to combat the spread of fake news and misinformation.
As the SOLIDARNA Foundation website states, the three-day workshop will teach the participants to recognise and fact-check fake news. It will also teach people to actively participate in content produced on social media, creating and launching a content alternative to fake news. Finally, the participants will also learn how to use satire in the promotion of human rights and how to communicate their values effectively.
''This workshop is intended for students, socially active individuals and to everyone else under 30 years of age who are interested in manufacturing digital content promoting human rights and fighting against fake news,'' says the public call on the website.
Experts from both Croatia and the wider region will share their knowledge on the subject. The experts include Tijana Cvjetićanin, a journalist at the Bosnian fact-checking site Raskrinkavanje.ba, Emina Bošnjak, executive director of the Sarajevo Open Centre (SOC), Borna Sor, a Croatian satirist (no stranger to TCN) and digital communication expert, Luka Kerečin.
Participation in the workshop is free, with both secured transport, accommodation, and food, but with a limited amount of places. Participants need to bring a laptop with them. Those who want to apply need to send a brief motivation letter about their interests and their past aexperience in activism toThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by September 10, midnight at the latest. The title of the mail must be “DIGITAL YOUTH ACTIVISM” and for all additional questions, you can send an inquiry to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Founded back at the end of 2015 and guided by the teachings of Eleanor Roosevelt, the SOLIDARNA Foundation says it wants to return human rights home ''to the hearts, minds, and lives of ordinary people.''
''The SOLIDARNA Foundation for Human Rights and Solidarity creates new opportunities for all citizens to act in solidarity, in our common effort to protect human rights and meet fundamental human needs, reduce inequalities and expand freedoms in all spheres of society,'' explains SOLIDARNA on its website.
With digital nomads and the digital industry being a more and more recognisable source of income and business in the country, digital literacy and being able to differentiate between facts and lies on the internet is ever more important.
Learn more about digital nomads with our TC guide.
For more about education in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.
Weekend Media Festival to Take Place in Rovinj on 23-26 September
ZAGREB, 30 Aug 2021 - The Weekend Media Festival (WMF) will take place in Rovinj on 23-26 September under the slogan "Live Life" after a year of break, it was announced last Thursday at a press conference.
The festival will take place at the city's former tobacco factory, and festival director Tomo Ricov said it would host one of the most famous contemporary philosophers, Slavoj Žižek, and influential German psychiatrist Manfred Spitzer.
The WMF will cover a variety of topics on the relation between contemporary life and technology, the pandemic of smartphones, social networks, activism, influencers, as well as the future of television, podcasts and others.
Organisers expect more than a thousand participants, which will also depend on measures introduced by the national COVID-19 crisis management team.
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Minister: Croatia to Discuss with Its Partners whether to Take in More Afghans
ZAGREB, 30 Aug 2021 - Croatia will decide, in talks with its partners, whether to take in more Afghan nationals fleeing the Taliban rule, Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Sunday after the arrival of 19 Afghans who will seek and be granted asylum in Croatia.
"We will see with our partners whether to take in more Afghan nationals," Grlić Radman told the public HTV broadcaster, adding that Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović would travel to Brussels next week to discuss migrations and refugees with other EU ministers.
Nineteen Afghan nationals - three families with children - arrived at Zagreb Airport on Saturday. The immigrants had worked as support staff for the Croatian mission in Afghanistan and had been vetted prior to their employment. The Ministry of the Interior has said that their identity will not be made known for the sake of their security.
"They have already been provided with accommodation... those three families include ten children, they are the most vulnerable group," said the minister.
"We have responded right away, in line with our possibilities and logistic conditions," Grlić Radman said.
He stressed that Afghanistan was faced with a major humanitarian crisis and that the situation in the country was changing the paradigm of global security.
"This will be a very sensitive security issue that will require multilateral action because we all want peace and stability in that part of the world," he said, adding that one could also hear that the Taliban were not what they had been 20 years ago.
On French president's visit
Commenting on a report about a plan for French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Croatia, Grlić Radman said that preparations for the visit had been going on for some time and that the French president was expected to pay a working visit in October or November, as well as that the date would be determined by the Office of the Prime Minister.
Grlić Radman underlined the importance of France in the EU and the global order, pointing to a joint proposal by Paris and London for Kabul Airport to be declared a safe zone.
"France constitutes the backbone of the EU," said the minister.
The talks with Macron will focus on the promotion of bilateral relations, economic cooperation, and the future of the Western Balkans and Southeast Europe, Grlić Radman said, recalling that the new EU admission methodology had complicated EU entry talks for North Macedonia and Albania.
"Croatia will try to appeal for stronger involvement by France" when it comes to security and stability in the Western Balkans, primarily Bosnia and Herzegovina, said the minister.
He noted that Croatia considered Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country with an EU membership prospect and wanted to discuss the importance of changes to its election law.
"That is the only way to make BiH functional and stable, with legitimate representatives of all peoples at all levels of government. The election law should guarantee the equality of all three constituent peoples," said Grlić Radman.
On ambassadorial appointments
Considering that by the end of the year 28 ambassadors and consuls should be appointed, and asked about disagreements between President Zoran Milanović and PM Plenković in that regard, Grlić Radman said that the impasse in talks on the matter had been resolved.
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President: If Reconstruction Continues at Current Pace, We Will Lose Petrinja
ZAGREB, 30 Aug 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Monday that the post-earthquake reconstruction process was too slow, warning that if it continued at the current pace, Croatia would lose Petrinja.
"Nothing is happening, unfortunately the process is too slow and if it continues at the current pace, we will lose Petrinja," Milanović said in reference to the town in Sisak-Moslavina County, hit hardest by the 29 December 2020 earthquake.
Asked about the pace of reconstruction, he said: "It is never easy and cannot be easy due to property-rights relations, but if you want something, you remove some barriers, possibly making some minor mistake or damage in the process that you later rectify."
"Croatia today would not have highways that were built, designed and financed in two years if we had dealt with every single private property separately, it would have taken us 300 years had we done so," he added.
He added that Petrinja and Glina, another town that suffered extensive damage in the earthquake, should not be "a tall order" and that adopting a new reconstruction law should be easy.
One or several key persons should be entrusted with the reconstruction process and be given financial powers, Milanović said, drawing a parallel with the process of reconstruction following the 2014 floods in the area of Gunja, which he said had been rebuilt in a few months and was of a similar size as Glina.
"As regards the region of Banija, some things require prompt solutions, there is no need for legal nitpicking over very single piece of property... one should take excavators and make order in Petrinja, there will be people who will file lawsuits but that will be dealt with in the process, otherwise we will lose the city," said Milanović.
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