ZAGREB, 20 Jan 2022 - Defence Minister Mario Banožić said on Wednesday he was satisfied with a report by the chief defense inspector "given the circumstances in which the inspection was conducted" and invited President Zoran Milanović to declassify his own requests.

Speaking to Jutarnji List daily, Banožić recalled: "a statement of 4 November 2021, at the start of the inspection, when President Milanović exerted gross pressure on the chief defense inspector by saying that 'they are saying in (power utility) HEP that the chief defense inspector's wife has been appointed director temporarily'."

Thereby, Banožić said, Milanović "showed what the chief inspector and his family will go through if the findings are not favorable to Milanović's interests."

Banožić was commenting on a letter Milanović sent Prime Minister Andrej Plenković in which he said that Banožić was hiding from the public the conclusions in which the Defence Inspectorate found that the military chief of staff did not break the law in implementing Banožić's decision on the holding of a swearing-in ceremony for conscripts and in providing support to the president's office in 2021.

The inspectorate's conclusions confirm that Banožić falsely accused the military leadership of breaking the law, thereby causing harm to the Armed Forces and Croatia, the president said, asking the prime minister to declassify the inspectorate's "restricted" findings.

Banožić said "the inspectorate's findings are classified" and asked the president to declassify "25 requests for transport by helicopter, 125 requests for various protocol matters, requests for using the Učka motor yacht, requests for the services of smaller military units, requests for using Armed Forces vehicles and drivers and for other forms of support which have been classified so that the public can have insight into the whole situation."

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

ZAGREB, 20 Jan 2022 - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday the EU should give a clear European perspective to the Western Balkans although he is not an advocate of enlargement without reforming the EU, while several Croatian MEPs feel that part of Europe is important to him for security reasons.

We must not distance ourselves from the Western Balkans anymore. They should get from us a clear perspective of EU accession within a reasonable time, Macron said at a plenary in Strasbourg, but added that enlargement is not possible without reforming the EU.

Croatian MEP Tonino Picula (S&D/SDP) told Hina "Macron is looking for his place in that security architecture of the world, notably Europe. Macron is interested in all that is in some way dubious from the aspect of Europe's security."

Macron is "aware that if Europe doesn't fill some gaps, someone else will," the president of the EP Working Group on the Western Balkans added.

Croatian MEP Željana Zovko (EPP/HDZ) told Hina the issue of enlargement to the Western Balkans "is first and foremost a security challenge if that region is left to third countries looking for their own strategic position and interest."

Enlargement "won't happen at any cost" and without all the requirements being met, the co-rapporteur on the pre-accession assistance to Southeast Europe instrument added.

Zovko said Macron's statement should be viewed in the context of the French presidential election due in April given that a majority of the French are not in favor of enlargement occurring soon. "The fact that he underlined that Europe needs to reform for enlargement to continue (indicates that) that process won't take place any time soon."

Picula, too, said Macron's address "was first and foremost a pre-election address because he was speaking in Strasbourg and to French citizens."

Croatian MEP Tomislav Sokol (HDZ/EPP) told Hina "pro-European groups should be given an incentive to continue to fight for the European path so that those countries reach the European standards of human rights protection, rule of law." He added, however, that some Western Balkan countries are still far from that.

"There is practically no opposition in Serbia, where all media or all-important media are controlled by the authorities. The story about a Serbian world, which is an attempt to spread Serb influence in neighboring states... Montenegro's ruling coalition consists of political groups that range from pro-European to fiercely anti-European. In Bosnia and Herzegovina we have one people looking to the West, instead of Turkey and Russia, without a hidden agenda, the Croats," he said.

Last November, Macron supported Croatia's accession to Schengen, and reforming the area is one of the priorities of the current French Council of the EU presidency. Croatian MEPs don't believe that will change if France gets a new president.

Sokol said he was confident that if Valerie Pecresse, the center-right presidential candidate, won the election, the support to Croatia's Schengen entry would be even stronger.

During the plenary debate, independent Croatian MEP Mislav Kolakušić told Macron, "Given the rescinding of numerous rights and freedoms in France during the pandemic, I ask you just one thing, while you preside over the Union, do the exact opposite of what you did in France."

"On the other hand, today you said you were proud that there is no death penalty in Europe. Tens of thousands of citizens have died as a consequence of vaccination. Mandatory vaccination represents the death penalty," he said, adding that vaccination against COVID "must remain" a personal choice.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

January 20th, 2022 - Dolphin sightings reported through the CroDolphin Little app will help researchers study and protect marine mammals inhabiting the Croatian Adriatic

Ever gone sailing in Croatia and spotted a friendly dolphin swimming along your sailboat, occasionally hopping out of the water? Dolphin sightings are relatively common in Croatian waters, especially in the Lošinj archipelago where the population of some 200 dolphins is observed and tracked by the Blue World Institute.

If you’re heading to the Croatian coast this summer and happen to spot a dolphin while island hopping, you can now log the sighting with the help of a handy app named CroDolphin Little.

The app was developed by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb to allow for simple and quick reporting of marine mammal sightings in the Adriatic, reports Turističke priče. Its primary purpose is to collect data on the population, movements and behaviour of marine mammals in Croatia.

Anyone can help researchers study and protect marine mammal species in Croatian waters by installing the app on their smartphone and logging any sightings of dolphins, whales or Mediterranean monk seals.

The CroDolphin app is easy to use: on the front page, tap ‘I see dolphins’; there’s a separate option to select in the unfortunate case of spotting a wounded or dead dolphin. You will then have to provide some additional information, such as location (GPS or GMaps), the number of animals you’ve seen, species, date and time.

CroDolphin little app screenshot

Every sighting report triggers a text message that is sent from the app to the expert team tracking the marine mammal population. The data is also automatically stored in the database that’s open to the public, but for the sake of animal safety, any sightings reported in the last 12 hours aren’t shown on the map.

The app is available for iOS and Android, and requires internet connection for map usage.

All marine mammal species inhabiting the Adriatic, including bottlenose dolphins, are considered endangered and have been protected under Croatian law since the 1990s. It’s forbidden to kill the animals, harass them in any way, or destroy their habitat.

If you spot a dolphin on the Croatian coast, we encourage you to report the sighting, but above all remember to observe and appreciate these wonderful animals from a distance to help keep them safe. Here’s our short guide on how to behave when you see a dolphin, and what to do in case you come across a stranded or injured animal.

January 20, 2022 - Marin Čilić has moved to the 3rd round of the 2022 Australian Open, where he will face the 5th seed of the tournament - Russian Andrey Rublev. 

Croatia's best tennis player Marin Čilić advanced to the 3rd round of the Australian Open Grand Slam tournament, defeating Slovak Norbert Gombos 6:2, 6:3, 3:6, 7:6 (6) in Melbourne in two hours and 42 minutes of play. Čilić (ATP-27) justified the role of the favorite against Gombos, the 117th player in the world, in their first duel.

Čilić won the first set smoothly, but his problems started in the third set when Gombos took his serve for the first time in the second game. When Marin broke in the fifth game, the Slovak went to 3:4 and won the set.

The fourth set was entirely even and went to the tie-break, in which Marin led 4:2, Gombos returned, and at 6:5, he even has a set point on his serve. However, Čilić won three points in a row and prevented the match from going to the fifth set.

Čilić had 20 aces and only two double faults in the match with a first-serve percentage of 56 percent, 46 winners, and 56 unforced errors.

In the 3rd round, Čilić will go against the tournament's fifth seed - Russian Andrey Rublev. The Russian tennis player lost in their first clash in Geneva in 2015 and celebrated in the following five matches. 

Croatian tennis player Ana Konjuh said goodbye to the Australian Open after losing in the 2nd round to American Danielle Collins 4:6, 3:6 in 80 minutes of play. Unfortunately, Konjuh (WTA-58) did not find a way to confront the 30th-best player in the world in their first clash.

The Dubrovnik native lost her first serve in the second game, returned to the match by saving two set-points at 3:5, but immediately in the next game, she gambled at 40:15 and lost the set. Konjuh's lost service in the second game of the second set proved fatal, and all that she had until the end of the match was one unused break-point at 3:5.

Konjuh had 8 double faults in this match and no aces. She had more winners than Collins (16-14) and more unforced errors (26-18). The American used all three break points. 

Source: Index.hr

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

January 20, 2022 - The latest flight news to Croatia as new Ryanair Zagreb-Lviv flights have been announced from March, while Air Serbia Belgrade-Rijeka flights return from this summer!

Ryanair announced a new route from its Zagreb base, which will start operating at the end of March this year, reports Croatian Aviation.

Namely, Ryanair will connect Zagreb and Lviv from the end of March!

The line between Lviv and Zagreb will operate from the very beginning of the summer flight schedule, on March 27, and the flights have been confirmed until the end of October this year. Two flights a week have been announced, every Wednesday and Sunday.

The new Zagreb-Lviv route will run using A320 aircraft with a capacity of 180 seats, which means that Ryanair will offer 22,320 seats between the two cities this summer season. 

Lviv, a city in western Ukraine with about 800,000 inhabitants, will be Ryanair's 27th destination from Zagreb Airport. This is the second regular line between Zagreb and Ukraine. Recall, Ukrainian Windrose Airlines operates on a regular route between Kyiv and Zagreb, twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays, throughout the year.

Ryanair from Lviv operates on 28 international routes to as many as 13 countries, and Zagreb and Croatia have now joined this list.

Furthermore, Croatian Aviation reports even more good news. Serbian National Airline Air Serbia will reintroduce a regular flight between Rijeka and Belgrade this summer!

Namely, Air Serbia is re-introducing its Belgrade-Rijeka flight, which was introduced in the 2019 summer flight schedule when it operated twice a week and was then planned as a year-round connection. Following the pandemic, the airline cut off traffic on this route and did not operate on it in the summer of 2020 and 2021.

However, expecting a significant recovery in demand, Air Serbia announced the reintroduction of this line from June 15 to September 17 this year.

Flights are announced twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and one-way tickets currently cost only 49 euros.

ATR72 aircraft have been announced on the line between Belgrade and Rijeka, which has a capacity of up to 70 seats in the passenger cabin. Air Serbia will offer almost 4,000 seats between the two cities this summer!

For more on flights to Croatia and other travel announcements, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

January 20, 2022 - The Split Tourist Board has presented a 360-degree Split virtual tour on Wednesday, allowing those near and far to explore the city's top attractions. 

The Split Tourist Board has announced a new virtual tour that presents Split through a modern and interactive visual display. The project was realized in cooperation with the L33T digital marketing agency, and the City of Split, Split museums and other cultural institutions in Split participated in the project.

"These are 188 virtual panoramas, produced from 17,600 photos taken from the air and the ground so that they ultimately have a resolution of more than 230 MP (megapixels) which allows the visitor to enlarge content and view every detail of the scene. On the other hand, the HDR production technique guarantees a crystal clear image and a huge amount of detail. The virtual walk also contains interesting short texts in Croatian and English, which additionally attract visitors and inform them about the main locations," explained the Split Tourist Board.

They add that virtual walks are made in HTML5 technology that works on all platforms and devices without any application installation and the like, but directly through a web browser.

"The time of the pandemic further strengthened the importance of applying technology in the promotion of the destination, so with this project, we wanted to bring all potential tourists even closer to the beauties of Split to choose our city for their long-awaited vacation, but also to present it to those currently unable to come to Split. This is one of our projects by which we follow the world trends in destination marketing management, and we believe that it will contribute to the realization of a successful tourist year," said Alijana Vukšić, director of the Split Tourist Board.

You can enjoy a virtual walk through sunny Split and explore the beautiful details of Diocletian's Palace and more at 360.visitsplit.com.

Source: Dalmatinski Portal

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

January 20, 2022 – In 2022, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić Theatre and Concert Hall Slavonski Brod celebrates 50 years as the central stage for culture in Brod Posavina County. Celebrations begin with a performance of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

From statues, sculptures and street processions, to family homes, festivals and schools, the name of famous writer Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874 – 1938) is kept permanently alive on the streets of Slavonski Brod. Famed as an author of children's literature, her fairytales drew on Slavic mythology and have been compared to the work of Hans Christian Andersen.

Statue of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić in Slavonski Brod

This beloved, adopted daughter of the city also lends her name to Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić Theatre and Concert Hall Slavonski Brod (here). The venue is the largest and most prestigious performance space in Brod Posavina County and is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022.

Celebrations will begin on January 29. Some 50 years ago, the opening performance in Slavonski Brod's new theatre was made by the esteemed Croatian National Theatre Osijek. Coming full circle, to mark the beginning of the special anniversary year, Croatian National Theatre Osijek will return on the very same evening.

Croatian National Theatre Osijek perform 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' © Kristijan Cimer

Rather fittingly, they will perform one of William Shakespeare's most popular and widely performed plays – A Midsummer Night's Dream. Like the works of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, Shakespeare's fantastical play takes place in a world filled with fairies.

Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić Theatre and Concert Hall Slavonski Brod

By night, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić Theatre and Concert Hall Slavonski Brod

The Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić Theatre and Concert Hall Slavonski Brod opened on 29 January 1972. However, its dedication to Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić happened over two decades into its life. The theatre has only been named after Slavonski Brod's most famous writer since 1994. Before then, the theatre had been dedicated to Valpovo-born Đuro Salaj, one of the founders of the Communist Party in Yugoslavia.

In addition to organizing theatre and music performances, the venue plays an integral part in three of Slavonski Brod's most important and most popular annual manifestations – Dance Days, In The World of Fairytales and Brod's Music Summer.

One of the theatre's most popular assets is its ability to hold outdoor performances. They take place in the courtyard immediately outside.

Held every April - around the birthday of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić - the In The World of Fairytales festival (here) celebrates the life and work of the famous author. In Slavonski Brod, it's not only the theatre that's named after Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić – so too is one of the schools.

Children from Slavonski Brod and from nearby play a huge role in the festival. Up to 5000 of them attend performances of the writer's works at the Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić Theatre and Concert Hall Slavonski Brod. The festival also features a street parade with costumed characters from fairy tales by Brlić-Mažuranić.

In The World of Fairytales festival Slavonski Brod

The Children's Theatre Company Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (founded in 1980) has been operating under the auspices of the Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić Theatre and Concert Hall Slavonski Brod since 2007. In that time, the company and theatre have strived to preserve and perform some of the lesser-known works by the writer. Some of Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić's stories are today out of print. Indeed, some of her writing remains unpublished.

Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić

Within the further anniversary program, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić Theatre and Concert Hall Slavonski Brod will revisit some of the same plays performed at the venue in its very first year. Croatian National Theatre Osijek appeared at the theatre no less than three times in that debut year, so you should expect their return to the stage in Slavonski Brod later in 2022.

Croatian National Theatre Osijek perform William Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' from 19.30 on 29 January at Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić Theatre and Concert Hall Slavonski Brod. Tickets are priced 70 kuna.

For more information about Slavonski Brod and Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, look here.

To keep up with happenings in Slavonski Brod, bookmark TCN's pages here.

January the 20th, 2022 - Most companies and individuals still haven't taken out Croatian natural disaster insurance despite the devastating events of 2020 which saw both the capital and Sisak-Moslavina County in Central Croatia rocked by strong earthquakes.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tomislav Pili writes, despite the record amounts of premiums written out last year, the Croatian insurance sector has warned that a large number of residents, companies and the economy are still exposed to uninsured risks, especially those posed by natural disasters. As the Croatian Insurance Bureau (HUO) announced recently, the gross written premium of Croatian insurers last year reached 11.7 billion kuna, which is a significant increase of 11.86 percent when compared to the previous year.

In the non-life insurance segment, total premiums increased by 672 million kuna or 9.15 percent when compared to the previous year, while in the life insurance segment, gross written premiums increased by 8.24 percent annually, reaching 2.9 billion kuna.

"As such, with the great resilience shown by insurance companies in these extremely unstable times over the past couple of years, their stable and secure operations continued and they continued to offer strong support to people through rapid two-way communication and the payment of damages without delay even in extraordinary conditions," they said from HUO.

However, the stable contribution of insurers would be even more significant if a larger number of people had contracted some form of adequate insurance coverage, including Croatian natural disaster insurance such as that issued for earthquakes, according to the umbrella organisation of insurers. Despite the fact that the insurance market in the country is still continuing to develop, ranking third in the Croatian financial market, behind banks and mandatory pension funds, and although slight growth has been achieved, Croatia still lags significantly behind more developed countries.

"The average insurance premium per capita in Croatia last year amounted to 399 euros, while the average at the EU level stood at 2,085 euros. For example, the average insurance premium in the life insurance segment in the EU is 1163 euros, and in Croatia it's 99 euros, in the health insurance segment in the EU it reaches 248 euros, in Croatia it's only 24 euros, while in the property protection segment in the EU it is 178 euros, and in Croatia it's 59 euros, which is a consequence of a lower standard of living, but also people's poorer financial literacy,'' they claimed from HUO.

Citizen awareness

The devastating earthquakes of 2020 raised people's level of awareness, and 2021 was marked by an increase in the number of people taking out earthquake insurance, by an additional 43.4 percent in comparison to 2020.

"In the past couple of years, insurers have paid out 541 million kuna in damages, which is less than half a percent of the total damage caused by the 2020 earthquakes, which clearly indicates that the penetration of this type of insurance is still very low compared to developed markets. The Croatian Insurance Bureau (HUO) would like to warn the public that despite the two-year increase, the number of earthquake insurance policies, especially the insurance of residential buildings, is still relatively low throughout Croatia, which is especially significant in light of the fact that Croatia, along with Greece, Turkey, Macedonia and Italy, lies in the most tectonicically risky area in Europe,'' the statement said.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.