ZAGREB, 10 July 2021 - There is a light at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic tunnel, but we must stay vigilant due to emerging new variants, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Josep Borrell said in Dubrovnik on Saturday and called for cooperation with Russia and China.

We are reaching the end of the tunnel, but the pandemic is still raging, especially in South America, Africa and India. We must stay vigilant because new strains are emerging, said Borrell at the 14th edition of the ministerial forum in Dubrovnik. This year's gathering focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on geopolitical relations and the world economy.

We still have a long battle ahead of us, said the chief of European diplomacy, adding that one the consequences of the pandemic will be an increasingly insecure, unequal and less free world.

Inequality will be visible, he said, not only between countries but also within each individual country.

The decisive factor for overcoming the pandemic are vaccines without which we cannot win this battle, Borrell said.

There was a lot of division at the international level, there was a lack of cooperation, but the scientific world worked hard and produced the vaccines in a very short time, Borrell said.

China increasingly intrusive, but cooperation necessary

Certainly, we need to do more, but there is one positive aspect. The EU is the only region in the world that has vaccinated its population and at the same exports the vaccine to other countries and donates to the COVAX programme, Borrell underscored.

He accused Russia and China of using vaccines to achieve their interests and warned that we had to be aware of that.

Those countries are using vaccine diplomacy, we must be aware of that, he said.

He pointed out that it was important how the EU would position itself in the triangle with the US and China, recalling that China is recording amazing economic development and that they received a very defiant message from President Xi Jinping from Beijing that foreign forces will face broken heads if they try to bully or oppress China.

(China) is becoming increasingly intrusive, cooperation with it is becoming more difficult, Borrell said.

However, he added there had to be cooperation with China in many areas and that the economic potential was still very large.

As much as 25% of global economic growth this year is from China, Borrell said, adding that in the the United States there are comments that China is a competitor, rival and partner.

He thinks that the competition between China and the US would shape the world in the decades to come, and the EU had to set a clear direction.

We share history, political and economic system with the US. We will always be close to Washington, but we must view the world taking into account our own interests, said Borrell, stressing that the dialogue between the EU and American President Joe Biden's administration on China was real, positive and constructive.

For more on politics, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 10 July 2021 - Croatia has managed to preserve its firm financial reputation, while weathering the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences of the 2020 devastating earthquakes, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in his speech at the 14th edition of Dubrovnik Forum on Saturday.

The fourteenth annual international conference titled "Dubrovnik Forum: (Post)-Pandemic Geopolitics - Together in a World Apart" focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the geopolitical relations and global economy. The programme includes three panels: "Unmasking the Geopolitics of a Post-Pandemic World"; "The International Community and the Western Balkans: How to End the Quarantine?"; and, "European Union, Three Seas Initiative and 17+China: How to support Central and Eastern Europe’s economic growth and societal development?".

Addressing the forum, PM Plenković said that Croatia's financial reputation remained firm owing to good results in the pre-pandemic period.

After being hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the devastating earthquakes, Croatia is now learning how to endure the pressure and tap considerable financial funds so as to provide the citizens with the real development that is evolving into two directions: admission to the Schengen Area during 2022, and the full readiness in 2023 for the admission into the euro area, he said.

The Croatian PM underscored the importance of international cooperation, notably joint efforts within the European Union.

The prevailing opinion of European leaders last summer was that we were faced with a huge problem that required the proper solution. The only way to find the solution for that big problem was to make agreement on the EU Next Generation instrument and withdraw a great amount of money for the recovery, Plenković explained.

He recalled that the European Commission had recently given its greenlight to Croatia's National Recovery and Resilience Plan, worth €6.3 billion, which could significantly boost the country's Gross Domestic Product and create 21,000 new jobs by 2026. 

The greenlight from Brussels is an important step towards the EU disbursing funds in grants and loans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

The EU plan for the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic was described by the Croatian prime minister as the wisest move.

He also recalled that at the onset of the pandemic, Craotia did not have enough equipment and protective clothes to address the crisis. Only one telephone call to Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang was enough and the problem was solved, the Croatian PM added.

During his key-note speech Plenković said that the developments in the western Balkans was one of the topics of the Dubrovnik event and he reiterated his support to Balkan countries' striving for EU membership.

He expressed hope that Bulgaria and North Macedonia would find a solution to their bilateral dispute as soon as possible.

The time has ripened for Albania and North Macedonia to finally start their accession negotiations, he added.

PM recalled that Croatia perceived Bosnia and Herzegovina as its most important neighbour in the historical, geographic and cultural sense.

We support the current process that is being conducted with the assistance of the USA and the European Union in relation to efforts to amend the election law in that country. We believe that this issue should be settled and that institutions should include legitimate representatives (of constituent peoples) and that we should comply with the letter and law of the Dayton Agreement, Plenković said.

All the three constituent peoples should be equal, and the moves being taken since 2006 have not made Croatia happy. We do not think that such moves are conducive to the good functioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he said.

Croatia also supports reforms being taken in other EU membership aspirants: Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.

Plenković conveyed Croatia's readiness for the strengthening of cooperation in the Mediterranean region and announced that in September Croatia and Slovenia could join the informal group of Mediterranean countries called MED 7.

For more on business, CLICK HERE.

July 10, 2021 - Paklenica National Park has launched a competition on its Facebook page in which all participants can become adopters of one of the UNESCO beech trees that are part of their World Heritage List by July 14.

Untouched beech forests of the Paklenica National Park are under the strictest protection and are part of the UNESCO property "Beech rainforests and original beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe". Furthermore, as reported by the Paklenica National Park, healthy and preserved old forests are extremely important in mitigating the effects of climate change.

The lifespan of a beech tree is more than 300 years, and a 100-year-old beech tree, for example, "eats" 2.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releases about 1.7 kilograms of oxygen in one hour. This is the amount of oxygen that 50 people need on average for an hour of breathing. Just imagine how much oxygen one beech produces in your life! In addition, such forest ecosystems represent the habitat of many other living organisms and contribute to the conservation of overall biodiversity.

To support the importance of preserving old beech forests, which are key to mitigating the effects of climate change, and great biodiversity, you have the opportunity to become the “adopter” of beech trees in one of the most valuable and best-preserved beech forests in Europe. In the comments below the post on the Facebook profile of the Paklenica National Park, in short, in five to six sentences, you should write why you should be the adopter of one of the UNESCO beech trees that is on their World Heritage List.

Participants whose most original reasons for the "adoption" of the letter are decided by the jury, become adopters of a tree and get the coordinates of the location where the tree is located so that they can personally visit their tree. In addition, adopters receive an annual pass for free entry to the National Park, a diploma "My beech lives in the UNESCO World Heritage Forest!", a card the name and surname of the adopter with a picture of his/her adopted beech, and to know what happens to the tree, the adopter will be occasionally informed of its condition.

The competition lasts until July 14, 2021, until 14:30, and the selected "adopters" will be published on the Facebook page of the Paklenica National Park, July 16, 2021.

Source: Turističke priče

Visit our 2021 guide on all Croatian National and Natural Parks HERE. Now in your language!

For more, follow our lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 10 July, 2021 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 88 new cases of the infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and there has been one related death, while the number of active cases stands at 605, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday.

There are currently 105 COVID patients in hospitals, five of whom are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020, when Croatia registered its first case of the infection, there have been a total of 360,768 registered cases, 8,227 people have died as a consequence and 351,936 have recovered, including 94 in the last 24 hours.

There are 3,446 people in self-isolation.

To date, 2,188,288 people have been tested, 3,640 of whom over the past 24 hours.

As at 9 July, 2,792,456 doses of vaccines have been administered, with 1,543,689 people having received at least one dose and 1,248,767 of them having received both doses.

For more on COVID-19 in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

July 10, 2021 - During the season, 500 fire watchers and 96 cameras will try to spot fires in Croatia as they arise in order to put them out as soon as possible. And Croatian Forests is investing additional funds in fire prevention and public education.

One of the main threats during the summer season are the fires in Croatia that occur mainly in Dalmatia and its islands, but as reported by HRT Vijesti, 500 observers and 96 cameras will be the main resources to prevent them from spreading and can be put out as soon as possible.

Mr. Ante Vedrić works as an observer of Croatian forests on a fourteen-meter observation post next to the Musapstan Forest Park in the suburbs of Zadar. During the fire season, the forest is monitored from June 1 to September 30 in shifts from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. The cameras are also on for 24 hours.

''The observer immediately reports to the fire center, the cameras record it and then they list the firefighters and our observers have a work diary and they record it every beginning of the fire, the end of the fire if the Canadian drops water bombs and we count it'', said Croatian Forest Observer Ante Vedrić .

However, fire prevention begins even before the season, so the Zadar foresters in Žmirići in the Nin-Kožino economic unit performed fire-fighting forest clearing.

''On fire prevention, we primarily work on pruning the lower branches, removing dry branches in the immediate vicinity of roads, cleaning belts, grinding small mass and thus reduce the possibility of forest fires and spread'', said Zadar Forestry Manager Mislav Maršić.

Last year, 200 square kilometers of forest were burned. The wood mass itself is worth ten million kuna, but the damage, due to the general useful functions of forests such as oxygen generation or reducing soil erosion, climbs up to one hundred million. That is why Hrvatske šume financed an additional four cameras this year, and a new tender for the provision of video surveillance services is being prepared.

''The four-year contract costs us about twenty million kuna, but that money is nothing because we heard what the damage is, what damage occurs when the forest burns so all the investments we have and that is from 75 to 100 million kuna as the average in the past four years are actually small investments considering how much fires in Croatia are prevented and how much forests are saved'', said the director of the Forestry Department of Croatian Forests Krešimir Žagar.

''Today we have 96 cameras in four counties: Dubrovnik-Neretva, Split-Dalmatia, Šibenik-Knin, and Zadar, where the cooperation of Croatian Forests with the fire brigades of the counties that Croatian Forests finances a certain part of the duty'', said the Chief Fire Chief of the Croatian Fire Brigade. community Slavko Tucakovic.

In Hrvatske šume, they claim that despite the new cameras, they will always need observers who earn four and a half thousand kunas a month. In addition, foresters will buy firefighters new special vehicles for forest fires because the age of their fleet is 23 years.

For more news about Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, 10 July, 2021 - Croatian President Zoran Milanović has said that during his presidential term, Croatia will make no longer any concessions when it comes to the rights of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Milanović said in an interview, published by the Bosnia and Herzegovina edition of the Večernji List on Saturday ahead of his visit to several BiH cities and towns mainly populated by local Croats, that during the recent adoption of the NATO summit meeting's final communique, he had insisted that the document should make mention of the Dayton Peace Accords which include guarantees for the respect for treating the Croats as one of the three constituent peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina and for making sure that this aspirant could continue its journey towards the European Union.

"In terms of the size, the Croats are today the least numerous people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, this does not mean that Croats should be treated as a minority and they will never been reduced to a (ethnic) minority," Milanović said.

"It would be in the interest of everyone to make sure that the Dayton agreement is respected, and compliance with the agreement can help Bosnia and Herzegovina to become a law-based state that can continue travelling towards the EU. Croatia strongly supports those efforts and would like to see Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the EU," Milanović said in the interview, adding that he was important that Croatia's Prime Minister and foreign policy-makers joined him in this tough stance.

"As long as I am the president, Croatia will make no concessions and will not stop halfway or join the stronger ones."

Milanović recalled that the document adopted at the end of the NATO summit meeting also pointed out the need for amending Bosnia and Herzegovina's election legislation, and he explained that the amendments should result in ensuring the legitimate political representativeness.

The right to elect your representative is a pillar of every democracy and such case should be also in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I can't see who would oppose the rights of Croats to have their representatives, he elaborated.

In this context he reiterated his criticism of the current practice which has led to the situation that the Croats do not have their legitimate representative in the country's three-member presidency.

He recalls that it is the constitutional obligation of the President of the Republic of Croatia to care for the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"It is unacceptable to have Bosnia and Herzegovina as an area for the implementation of somebody's experiment particularly detrimental to the local Croats," he underscored.

Milanović will visit Vitez, Mostar, Ljubuški, Livno and Tomislavgrad on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

This is his first visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina in his capacity os the Croatian head of state.

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

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

July the 10th, 2021 - Fancy drinking some cyber safe beer made in Croatia? Now you can, thanks to the teaming up of Combis and a Croatian brewery. Meet Hack3r.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, Hack3r craft beer is a new drink designed and marketed by the IT company Combis and the Varionica craft beer company. Hack3r is part of the #GetInvolved initiative, and is also the new star of the 30SEC cyber security campaign that the company has been working on for several months in an attempt to warn and educate the public about the varying and very real online threats.

"Hack3r has two editions - white hat and black hat and we hope that the terminology will catch the public's eye, that it will intrigue people and that they will understand that internet security takes place through the competition of ''white'' and ''black'' hats, a term which refers to good and bad hackers,'' explained the director of Combis, Goran Car.

One of the co-founders of Varionica, Davor Simicic, explained that the cooperation with Combis which resulted in Hack3r was due to the desire to create an innovative beer with an exclusive signature.

“The development of the beer was free of limiting factors like price or raw material, which created a fantastic brewing experience. We were guided by creating a new and different craft, and I'm especially proud of the white hat edition which provides an intriguing experience and the name for it is absolutely spot on,'' said Simicic, adding that the Hack3r pale/blonde beer follows the style of American IPA. To briefly recall, back in May, Varionica's products were declared the best in all of Europe at the European Beer Challenge in London, a prestigious competition and evaluation of beer which is known throughout the continent.

As the creators of Hack3r beer say, this is a creative fruity bomb with a synergy of pineapple and coconut, and it has been available for order on the Varionica website from July the 9th. The production of their dark ale is also now finished, followed by bottling and distribution in September.

Car pointed out that the launch will be accompanied by a new security education, which hammers home the message to people to always make sure that they are safe online.

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

July the 10th, 2021 - Croatia has an enormous sum of money waiting to be utilised in various ways thanks to the European Union, but how will it do so? More importantly, what will be the effect on Croatian GDP?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, this plan which involves this EU cash should raise Croatian GDP growth by 1.5 percentage points in 2021 and by 2.5 to 2.9 percentage points in all years until 2026, including that final year, which is a huge boost following the coronavirus pandemic which left horrendous scars on the Croatian and European economies.

It should create 21,000 new jobs, too, and this is just an assessment of the direct impact of all the investments envisaged in the plan, not including the many reforms, which are an equally important part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. If Croatia manages to close the half of the gap with the European Union average with structural reforms, in the next 20 years, Croatian GDP would be as much as 15 percent higher than today.

These are just some of the figures that European Commission experts came up with when analysing and approving the much talked about Croatian NPOO. After the approval of the Croatian plan, Vecernji list found out about their thoughts and impressions from a high-ranking European official in Brussels.

It should not be forgotten, they added from the Belgian capital, that in addition to these 6.3 billion euros provided by the completely new fund from the mechanism for recovery and resilience, Croatia has about 9 billion euros at its disposal from the classic, structural EU funds.

''In front of you is a gigantic effort, you need to be able to manage and implement projects that will see all that money spent in a very short amount of time. You need to focus on that common challenge,'' said the official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

After yesterday's green light from the European Commission, the EU Council has four weeks to adopt an implementing decision, which is a formal approval and allows for the payment of an advance of 13 percent of the value of the NPOO, which in the Croatian case totals about 819 million euros. In Brussels, everyone hopes that the Croatian plan will be approved by the Council before collective holidays begin during August.

For more, follow our politics section.