ZAGREB, 12 June, 2021 - A March for Life was held in the central town of Sisak on Saturday for the second year in a row, with the participants expressing their respect and love for both unborn and born children.

The participants walked through the town's centre singing and rejoicing, "expressing their solidarity, respect and love for both unborn and born children, their mothers, fathers and grandparents, for our families and Croatia," the organisers said in a statement.

The coordinator Terezija Tržić said that they were marching for all women needing their support, love and help, as well as for social, legal and any other protection of unborn children.

"We never ever 'help' mothers terminate the life of their children. The woman is the mistress of her own body, but the moment she becomes pregnant, she carries another body in her own body - the body of her son or daughter. A pregnant woman is already a mother," the statement said.

Another coordinator, Boris Prpić, said that today was a special day because they were again marching for life after a string of earthquakes had devastated this area last year.

"Surveys show that 75 percent of women who have had an abortion say they did it for economic reasons or because of community pressure. It is therefore our responsibility to care about protecting life from conception to a natural death. We want to encourage the government to take concrete measures to help mothers," Prpić said.

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ZAGREB, 12 June, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Saturday called on citizens via social networks to get vaccinated, noting that there is a sufficient quantity of vaccines and that it only takes a minute to protect one's life with vaccination and move on towards relaxation of epidemiological restrictions.

"More than 1.4 million people have received at least one vaccine dose, and more than 700,000 have been fully vaccinated. There is a sufficient quantity of vaccines and I call on everyone to get vaccinated. It only takes a minute to protect one's life by getting immunised and that is also the way to relax restrictions and have a safe season," Plenković said in a Twitter post.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Vili Beroš was in Zadar, participating in the vaccination of members of a local basketball team as well as other residents.

In the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 125 new COVID-19 cases while nine people have died, the national COVID-19 response team said earlier in the day.

There are currently 1,128 active cases in the country.

By 11 June a total of 2,087,157 doses of vaccines were administered. So far 1,401,647 people have received at least one dose while 685,510 have received both shots.

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ZAGREB, 12 June, 2021 - Despite efforts by 11 EU countries, energy ministers have not managed to say 'No' to the extension of fossil fuel subsidies for some cross-border energy projects and by supporting this, Croatia has once again demonstrated a lack of ambition in fighting climate change, the Green Action NGO has said.

EU ministers on Friday agreed to extend EU support for some cross-border gas projects despite efforts by 11 countries and the European Commission that had clearly said that such funding should be discontinued in line with climate goals. The Council reached agreement on a revision of the regulation on the trans-European energy grid, thus accepting a compromise text that will extend subsidies for gas projects.

"(Economy and Sustainable Development) Minister Tomislav Ćorić did not attend the meeting but a representative of his ministry endorsed that weak text and Croatia has thus once again confirmed a lack of ambition in the fight against climate change," the NGO warned.

The agreement was not endorsed by Germany, Spain, Austria and Luxembourg.

"Even though the world is on fire, too many member-states still want to extend the use of fossil fuels like natural gas," the Green Action says.

The agreement defines the way the European Commission picks priority projects of common interest which then get EU funding and environmental permits faster. That is how the LNG terminal on the island of Krk ended up on such a list of priority projects, despite opposition from the local community and public at large, the Green Action says, noting that natural gas would probably continue to dominate new projects.

"Even though we should redirect all subsidies to clean renewable energy sources, we will continue paying for unnecessary gas infrastructure and gas pipelines that transport gas mixed with small quantities of hydrogen. The European Parliament must now take a firm stand to end EU subsidies for all fossil fuels," says the Green Action.

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ZAGREB, 12 June, 2021 - As many as 72% of cities and 76% of municipalities in Croatia have fewer residents than is optimal considering their economic potential and volume of services, the Večernji List daily issue of Saturday says.

This conclusion is the result of a study made by Croatian National Bank (HNB) researchers Antonija Biljan, Milan Deskar Škrbić and HNB deputy governor Sandra Švaljek, focusing on the optimal size of local government units, which is a rare research topic in Croatia.

Zagreb was not included in the analysis due to a number of particularities, and the analysis shows that cities should not have fewer than 15,000 residents (15,139) while the optimal number of residents for a municipality is 3,744. Only one in four cities or municipalities meet that criterion.

The study was published after the recent local election and its authors put forward several recommendations for politicians, suggesting voluntary merging of the smallest local government units or interest-based cooperation between neighbouring municipalities.

There are 556 local government units in Croatia, of which 127 are cities and 428 municipalities. The City of Zagreb has a special status of city and county.

Only 35 cities have more residents than the optimal number, as do 102 municipalities. The budgets of all local government units amount to around HRK 28 billion.

The country's existing territorial organisation is not based on a historical administrative division but is a result of discretionary decisions by policy makers in the early 1990s, the authors of the study say.

Considering the size of territory, population, fiscal capacity, system of financing and functions of local government units, many domestic experts warn that the current territorial structure is inefficient and calls for their merger.

The HNB study focused on population density, demographic structure of local residents, socioeconomic factors such as the amount of taxable income and unemployment rate, as well as transfers from the central government, the daily says.

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ZAGREB, 12 June, 2021 - The Preporod teachers' union said on Saturday Education Minister Radovan Fuchs' statement about an incident in a Zadar high school, where students poured a disinfectant in a teacher's drink, was ill-advised and harmful in many ways and his interference in the disciplinary proceedings unacceptable.

"The minister should not interfere in the work of bodies in charge of resolving situations like this one, particularly not before sanctions are determined. Also inappropriate is his statement, regardless of his reputation as an expert on poisons, that 'the amount of the disinfectant could not have caused more serious consequences'," the union says.

It notes that the incident calls for strong condemnation by the education authorities and an appropriate punishment for the perpetrator or perpetrators.

"This is a new, very dangerous form of violent school behaviour and only an appropriate punishment... can send an unambiguous message to possible future perpetrators of similar acts," the union says in a statement, noting that the minister's statement downplays the incident and justifies the perpetrators without even mentioning the victim.

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ZAGREB, 12 June, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in an interview with CNN on Friday that during the coronavirus crisis Croatia had combined public health protection measures and measures designed to help the business sector and financial system well, and that in that sense it had been successful. 

We have struck a balance between health and economic, that is, financial security, Plenković said in a programme called Quest Means Business.

Asked if in preparing for the tourist season Croatia had possibly relaxed epidemiological measures too much, given that tourism accounts for a significant portion of its economy and its experience from 2020, when tourism results were significantly lower than in 2019, Plenković said that Croatia had a stable economic growth before the coronavirus crisis, with a drop in the share of public debt in GDP and budget deficit.

We have supported workers and employers during the pandemic, spending more than HRK 10 billion for aid schemes intended for some 700,000 workers and that has been crucial, he said.

In the current stable political situation, the economy is crucial, he said, adding that Croatia's prospects of recovery were good because in the next seven years it could count on a total of €25 billion from European funds.

As for tourism, he said that it accounted for around one-fifth of GDP and that this year Croatia wanted to achieve results that were better than last year's.

"If we achieve 60-70% of the 2019 results, it will be very good," he said, adding that that was why extensive preparations, epidemiological and those related to security, had been undertaken in cooperation with airports, airlines, restaurants and others.

"Safe stay in Croatia is our main motto this summer," he said.

In response to the interviewer's remark that there have been a lot of objections in Europe about vaccination against COVID-19 being poorly coordinated and asked if he was satisfied with how the opening-up after lockdown and recovery were being coordinated, he said that he was absolutely satisfied with the coordination of recovery efforts, mentioning in that context the €750 billion secured by the EU for its member-states for that purpose.

He also noted that the coordination of the vaccination process in Europe was "very good, with a lot of solidarity" and that there was a sufficient quantity of vaccines.

As for the interviewer's remark that that was not so and that coordination was terrible and a fiasco, Plenković said that that was not true and that at first there had been delays in the delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine but that nobody could have known that the company would be late with it.

Vaccination in Croatia now is running smoothly and anyone who wants to get vaccinated can do so, he said.

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ZAGREB, 12 June, 2021 - In the past 24 hours, Croatia has registered 125 new COVID-19 cases while nine people have died, the national COVID-19 response team said on Saturday.

There are currently 1,128 active cases in the country, including 408 hospitalised patients, 35 of whom are on ventilators.

A total of 358,504 cases of coronavirus have been registered in the country since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020 and 8,132 of them have died. A total of 349,244 people have recovered, including 195 in the past 24 hours.

Currently 6,445 people are in self-isolation.

To date a total of 2,074,221 people have been tested for the virus, including 4,701 in the past 24 hours.

By 11 June a total of 2,087,157 doses of vaccines were administered. So far 1,401,647 people have received at least one dose while 685,510 have received both shots.

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

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Jun 12, 2021 - There has been a lot of interest in the new Croatian digital nomad permit, with many looking to read about the experiences of successful applicants. Meet one, Kevin Macadam from UK, now enjoying life in Novigrad Dalmatia.

Access to Croatia is not as easy as it once was for Brits, now that the Brexit reality has kicked in, and  - like other non EU/EEA citizens, Brits can only stay for 90 at one time these days. Having heard of the Croatian digital nomad, Brit Kevin Macadam decided to try his luck, as he explains below. I did send Kevin questions for an interview, but I think the text reads better without my questions. Here is Kevin's story:

Our journey to Croatia originally began last year when we were out walking our dog in rainy Yorkshire and discussing where we might want to live when we retire.

And then we looked at each other and said why are we waiting to retire as we both were working remotely.

We had just come back from holiday on the Amalfi coast in Italy and said it would be great to live in Italy and so we started to look and how we could live there.

Unfortunately to get temporary residency we had to set up an Italian company and have our wages paid into that company so that they could take their share of tax.  

Our employers wouldn’t have agreed to that and so we thought that was that.  I then spotted the term Digital Nomad Visa online and looked at which companies offered them in Europe as we had to consider we would take our cat and dog with us.  Georgia - too cold Estonia - too cold and then we saw Croatia!  Having already been on holiday to Hvar and Dubrovnik we knew we loved the country and I already had friends there as I have been involved in British baseball for the last 30 years and knew the Croatian baseball president and the secretary of the European baseball federation who live in Zagreb and Karlovac respectively.

So that’s how we decided on Croatia, we already knew we loved the scenery, the food, the cost of living and the people.

We travelled over on the 1st March 2021 in a small window when we were allowed to leave the UK and arrived on the usual 90 day allowed time.  We then applied for the DNV around 6 weeks into our stay.  We had tried to get over before the 31st December but the U.K. was in a strict lockdown so we couldn’t get over.

We applied online via the Croatian government website and submitted all our supporting documents and waited.  We were asked to attend the police station and went for interview and then went to a separate department to go through the paperwork.  Unfortunately we thought our DBS check on U.K. government paper would be sufficient but apparently we needed it to be apostilled so we sent it back to the U.K. and then got them sent over by courier and once submitted in person again our residency was approved.  

The only thing I would say was a slight inconvenience was having completed the forms online we then had to complete them in paper format as well but I’m sure they’ll sort that out in future.  

We are aware that we are old for digital nomads and think that the residency permit should be marketed to people approaching retirement or an older age group (I’m 54 and Lisa’s 46) and as such probably have more disposable income. 

Also I hope the government rethink what will happen at the end of the first year when the the first permits expire.  We would like to make Croatia our home and are currently looking to buy a property here.  However we will be forced to leave for 90 days once our permit expires and therefore will likely go to a nearby non schengen country to wait out the time.  The risk is that some people may go to say Montenegro or Serbia and decide they like it more there and not return.  I think a simple extension each year providing there are no criminal activities and that we continue to meet the criteria as well as is understanding that it will not lead to permanent citizenship would remove that risk.  

It was easy to get the information as we had read articles by TCN as well as Expat in Croatia so just followed the instructions.

Ironically I voted for Brexit and my wife voted remain.  I regret that decision now! The permit allows us to live in a better climate in a safe country for longer than 90 days.

Croatia is a great destination for nomads.  There are loads of outdoor activities to do, food is amazing, people are friendly and English and German is widely spoken by the locals.   There are some great internet deals via partners who have linked in with the scheme.  The biggest issue we had which took us the longest amount of time was finding somewhere to live.  We contacted over 100 people on Njuškalo, Airbnb and booking.com asking them for a long term let and year round income.  We asked them to calculate what they earn over the summer months and divide by 12 and only one person our landlady Dolores agreed and hence why we ended up in Novigrad, Dalmatia.

All the others weren’t interested as they did they could earn a lot over the summer.  As it turns out we couldn’t have picked a better town.  The locals are so friendly and have welcomed us.  It’s position is perfect placed to visit the whole of Croatia.  So far we have visited Opatija, Pula, Rovinj, Karlovac, Zagreb, Split, hvar, Korcula, orebic, varazdin, plitvice and Karla and in the coming weeks will be venturing further south. 

Our lifestyle consists of working from home, travelling the country, eating great food, taking the dog for long walks, going to the coffee, swimming in the sea and drinking the worlds best kept secret Croatian wine!

People can follow our adventures @livingincroatia2021 on Instagram.

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