ZAGREB, 5 Oct, 2021 - In an effort to increase employment of the Roma community in Međimurje, the Justice and Public Administration Ministry has launched a pilot project for Roma mentors, which was presented in Čakovec on Tuesday.

The pilot project is being implemented within a project to improve the protection of human rights and public security through strengthening capacities in probation services. The project is valued at €2.1 million and it is being financed from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism.

Part of the funds is earmarked for the employment of six Roma from Međimurje County for a period of 19 months as Roma mentors.

 After attending training, which will be conducted by Czech experts with experience in similar projects, the Roma mentors will provide support to probation offices, the police, employment service, public health institute, state inspectorate and other social welfare and educational institutions.

State-secretary in the Ministry, Josip Salapić, underscored that the project is aimed at totally including the Roma minority in society.

This is the first project of this kind in Croatia, the head of the prison system and probation administration, Jana Špero said.

An advisor in the Interior Ministry, Vladimir Faber, said that a lot is expected from this project.

"It will enable two-way communication between institutions and Roma communities and between institutions themselves," Faber said, adding that the biggest problem in Roma communities is poverty, social exclusion, poor education, crime among minors, which can be changed with mutual communication.

President of the Kali Sara Roma alliance in Croatia,  Suzana Krčmar, underscored that the Roma will always offer their hand and be open to everyone, especially those who are their friends.

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

October 5, 2021 - Handball club NEXE from Našice will play in the EHF European League Group C!

Although the impressions have not yet subsided after the NEXE handball team made up for 6 goals against the Danish club Bjerringbro Silkeborg and qualified for the European League, the future is already being planned in Našice. The European League groups have been drawn in Vienna.

Slobodan Kadic

NEXE was in the last pot this time. Regardless, the draw could have been better. The Našice club is in group C with the German team Magdeburg, French PAUC, Swedish Savehof, Spanish Logron la Rioja, and Slovenian Gorenje from Velenje. Coach Branko Tamše was most pleased with the latter. Born in Velenje, he became a player at Gorenje and later started a very successful coaching career.

Slobodan Kadic

"We knew that all groups would be strong, but ours is very difficult with six different styles of play and therefore attractive. There will be everything; I am already looking forward to new matches. And now, slowly, game by game, we will prepare well for as many points as possible. I think the easiest is group D, and group B is like ours. It is what it is!" pointed out Tamše, who, together with his players, will enjoy the victory for a few more days.

Slobodan Kadic

NEXE begins in the European League Group C on October 19, visiting Provence in Aix against PAUC. Then, they will play at home against Savehof on October 26, a slightly more challenging opponent than last year's Alingsas, which NEXE defeated twice in the European League group last year. Savehof is the current Swedish champion.

NEXE will then make their fourth visit to Magdeburg (November 16). The draw put them in the same group for the second year in a row. Magdeburg went to the very end last season, so they will try to defend their title as European League champs.

Slobodan Kadic

A week later, NEXE will visit Logrono La Rioja in Spain. They are nominally the third-best club in Spain, behind the European champions Barcelona and Bidasoe Irun, and were knocked out by NEXE last year on their way to the European League.

The first round will close on November 30 against Velenje in Našice, and a week later, NEXE will play in Tamše's hometown, where the team prepared this summer.

Four teams from each group will advance to the round of 16. 

To follow the latest sports news in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

To learn more about sport in Croatia, CLICK HERE.

October 5, 2021 - When it comes to Croatian tourism, wine and camps are always part of the conversation in almost all regions of the country. In Međimurje, a family has combined both concepts, and it is thus that the Hažić Wine Camp has recently been recognized for its wine and accommodation offer.

This year, the Hažić family opened the first wine camp in Croatia, located in Međimurje, more precisely in Sveti Martin na Muri. As Turističke Priče reports, the aforementioned wine camp received the OK Mini Camps quality award and was thus included among one of the best small camps in Croatia.

''We are pleased to announce that based on the analysis of the quality of the content and service of our camp by the KUH commission, we are included in the list of 46 best small camps in Croatia'', said the Hažić Wine Camp.

This wine camp is the first camp of its kind in Croatia. It is located in the untouched nature of upper Međimurje, on the famous tourist route in the immediate vicinity of Terme Sveti Martin and the Mill House by the river Mura.

Photo: Hažić Wine Camp Official Facebook Page

The camp on the family farm Hažić offers 12 pitches for campers and eight wooden mobile homes, electricity, water, wi-fi, toilets, children's playground, grill area, laundry service, and pets are allowed. Otherwise, the entire Hažić Wine Camp was built according to the highest environmental standards with the category of four suns.

The camping pitches range in size from 80 to 110 square meters and bear the names of the most represented grape varieties in the Međimurje vineyards, which is another great example of connecting with a local and authentic story.

Međimurje got its first Wine Camp thanks to the Hažić family, which has been recognized for more than 30 years for quality local products such as wine, apples, and honey, and to their Hažić Family Farm and Wine House, they have now added the third in a series of investments, but certainly not the last.

Photo: Hažić Wine Camp Official Facebook Page

Apart from quality products, the Hažić, Biserka, and Radenko family, with their daughters Tatjana and Valentina, who continued the family farm, is also known for innovative ideas aimed at tourism and the agriculture sector, which is confirmed by this investment.

Međimurje is a top wine region

Međimurje is a top wine region, and proof of that are the numerous medals from last year's, but also this year's Decanter World Wine Awards, where it was confirmed that the best Croatian sparkling wines come from Međimurje. And this is no coincidence, since in 2016, for the first time in history, the first two medals arrived in Međimurje.

The camp offers accommodation to tourists who want to enjoy nature, fine wines, sparkling wines, juices, and other products from the workshop of the Hažić family.

Campers in the area can enjoy cycling, wellness services of Terme Sveti Martin, getting to know local cultural sights, enjoying numerous adventurous activities organized by the Accredo Center or a picnic with excellent local food and drinks of the restaurant Međimurski dvori, and at the request of the guest will offer delivery breakfast in the form of a pinklec basket on the plot. Guests and tourists of the camp can also enjoy local products from Međimurski štancun.

Photo: Croatia.hr

Located in the fertile lowlands between the rivers Mura and Drava, Međimurje justifies its nickname – the Garden of Croatia. The neat little villages and towns intertwine with an enchanting landscape. The region might be small, but it offers a bounty of attractions to impress any visitor. Whether you are into food and wine, relaxation and outdoor activities, or exploring local history, Međimurje is a garden full of possibilities. If you want to learn more about the ''Garden of Croatia'', be sure to read Total Croatia's Međimurje in a Page HERE.

Croatian wines and grapes are among the best in the world, and you can find more information about them in Total Croatia’s Guide to Croatian Wine HERE.

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

October 5, 2021 - The October Croatian tourism campaign thanks visitors for their trust in choosing Croatia in 2021.

The Croatian National Tourist Board has launched a new promotional campaign, "Thank you for your trust," on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter reports HTZ.

The campaigns will be conducted in the ten most important markets from which the most significant tourist turnover was achieved in Croatia this year, i.e., in the markets of Germany, Slovenia, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Italy, the Netherlands, and France.

This campaign aims to draw additional attention to Croatia after the summer months through the positive experiences of foreign tourists, influencers, bloggers, photographers, and journalists who stayed in Croatia this year and shared their stay on social networks with their numerous followers. This campaign thanks them for choosing Croatia as their safe destination vacation, says the Croatian National Tourist Board.

"We will run the campaign in October, and it is a kind of continuation of the main campaign "Trust me, I've been there," which we successfully conducted during the summer and which achieved excellent promotional results. This is confirmed by the large number of foreign guests who decided to spend their vacation in our country this year and contribute to Croatia achieving the best tourist results in the Mediterranean. Now, through this campaign, we want to thank them for their trust, we want to keep the visibility of Croatia in selected markets and tell everyone that they are always welcome in our country," said the director of the Croatian National Tourist Board, Kristjan Stanicic, adding that so far this year About 11 million foreign tourists visited Croatia.

Famous Croatian athletes are also participating in the new campaign.

The real impressions and sincere recommendations of tourists and travel enthusiasts and the photos they created during their stay in Croatia will be used to make the campaign as authentic as possible.

Italian influencers Ema Kovač and Gennaro Lillio, Polish blogger Wojtek Tyluś, Austrian photographer Christian Freiwald, Hungarian blogger Élő Bence, French musician, and DJ Jean-Marie K, and others shared their impressions of Croatia.

Famous Croatian athletes who chose Croatia for their ideal summer vacation also joined the campaign - Marin Čilić, Domagoj Duvnjak, Darijo Šarić, Sandra Perković, Sinković brothers, Fantela brothers, Ivica Kostelić, Ivan Buljubašić, Dina Levačić, Barbara Matić, Ana Đerek, and more. 

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

ZAGREB, 5 Oct 2021 -  In the past 24 hours, Croatia has conducted 9,320 coronavirus tests and 11.5% of them, that is 1,074, have returned positive, and 19 COVID patients have died, the national COVID response team reported on Tuesday.

There are currently 7,913 active cases in the country, with 823 hospitalised patients and 107 of them are on ventilators.

Since 25 February 2020 when the first case of COVID was registered in Croatia to date there have been a total of 409,992 positive cases to the novel coronavirus and 8,704 people died as a consequence. A total of 393,375 people recovered from the infection, with 1,215 having recovered in the past 24 hours.

There are 18,112 people self-isolating.

A total of 2,864,396 tests have been conducted to date.

So far, over 3..45 million doses of COVID vaccines have been administered with 45.17% of the total population or 54.17% of the adult population having been vaccinated.

A total of 1,832,889 have received at least one dose of a vaccine and 1,718,074 people have been fully immunised, the national COVID team said.

October 5, 2021 - The CDC (United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has warned against US travel to Croatia. 

On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned against travel to Croatia, Armenia, Austria, Barbados, and Latvia due to rising COVID-19 cases.

The CDC raised its travel recommendations to “level 4, very high” and told Americans that they should avoid traveling to those five countries.

"Avoid travel to Croatia. If you must travel to Croatia, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel," the CDC said. The CDC encourages travelers to be fully vaccinated before travel, though even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants. 

On Monday, Croatia registered 219 new coronavirus cases and 7 COVID-19-related deaths over the past 24 hours with the number of active cases at 8,073.

There were 810 infected patients receiving hospital treatment, and 98 of them on ventilators.

"Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 408,918 people have been registered as having contracted the novel coronavirus, and 8,685 of them have died, while 392,160 have recovered, including 1,208 in the last 24 hours. Currently, there are 18,521 people in self-isolation.

To date, 2,855,076 people have been tested, 3,032 of whom over the past 24 hours," the Croatian Civil Protection Headquarters reported on Monday. 

We await the new numbers for today, which will undoubtedly be higher. 

The CDC has also reduced travel recommendations to “level 3” for Morocco, Argentina, France, Iceland, Lesotho, Nepal, Portugal, and South Africa but advises its citizens to get fully vaccinated before taking a trip.

The CDC uses World Health Organization data along with other official sources to determine the risk levels. 

You can read more about the CDC's travel recommendations for Croatia and other countries HERE.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

October the 5th, 2021 - The Croatian company Sinitech based in the continental city of Sisak, has seen its revenues soar in spite of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which caused tremendous issues for the economy last year. They're doing so well, in fact, that they need to turn jobs away from time to time.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, an inspector from the TÜV delivery had nothing but praise for the Croatian company Sinitech when checking things out for a client in the UK, stating: ''over the 20 years I've been in this business, I haven't seen anything like this produced in Croatia before.''

This company processes equipment, the most complex of all are the bulky heat exchangers. As the co-owners of the company, Tonci Peric, in the position of CEO, and Zvonimir Rosa, who is in charge of marketing and sales, explained, these are pieces of equipment whose individual parts weigh up to 52 tonnes.

We're expecting a lot of growth in the coming period, and I'm afraid that due to limitations, primarily in terms of available labour, we won't be able to accept all projects which come to us,'' said Peric, whose company manufactures equipment for the energy, food and chemical industries.

Sinitech Industries has its roots in one of the largest Croatian metallurgical industries, Jedinstvo, of which one part of this company emerged. Over the past 30 years, there have been structural and ownership changes, and the current ownership and management structure has been in place as it is since 2020.

“Back in 2019, the Croatian company Sinitech had a revenue of some eight million kuna, even with a number of problems in its business. Last year, we stabilised our business and increased that revenue sum to 20 million. This year, we exceeded that amount in the first half of the year and we expect a minimum of 30 million kuna in revenue, and at least 50 million for next year,'' pointed out Peric.

Until last year, the company operated in its "traditional" space, from the time of Jedinstvo, in Zagreb's Jankomir. However, as it was a relatively small business space and an unprofitable investment in that location, they decided to head further east, to Sisak.

"Even before, half of our employees came from Sisak, so that city was among our first options," said Zvonimir Rosa, emphasising the interesting fact that they moved production to Sisak, but kept their salaries at the level of those acceptable for the City of Zagreb.

He added that in the next year, they plan to invest more than 10 million kuna in this new Sisak space. They also employ 55 people, along with 15 more in the company Probotica, which is related to the Zagreb Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture.

"We aren't connected only by ownership, we're connected in every other way. We simply estimated that Probotica has a team of successful engineers, scientists, managers and consultants who ideally fit synergistically into what we do. They had the same assessment for us. So, we head off into all of these projects together, actually as one company. They have the capacity to develop innovative projects based on the latest achievements of modern science and technology, and we have the knowledge and capacity to achieve and sell it all,'' explained Peric.

He added that he decided on a kind of business extension through the new company due to strict technological standards and customer requirements that do not allow for what's known as the "contamination" of technology, especially by mixing production processes using black steel on one side and stainless steel on the other.

Although most of their clients ask for their names and orders to remain secret when signing contracts, they state that almost all Croatian food and pharmaceutical companies are among their customers, and one of the projects that stand out is for Coca-Cola in Zemun, Serbia.

"Currently, 30 percent of our sales go to the Croatian market, and 70 percent to exports. We export the most to the European countries - Austria, Germany and Great Britain, and we are strengthening our presence in both Italy and France. We also have projects on other continents, such as the milk powder plant and Gum Arabic, the raw material for the pharmaceutical industry, in Sudan, but these are just individual cases,'' said the CEO of the Croatian Sinitech company.

Although the coronavirus crisis has caused serious business problems for most companies, Sinitech says it has actually helped them by shortening supply chains and returning the industry from China back ''home'' to Europe, which has put their company in the focus of European customers.

You can learn more about Sinitech here.

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

October the 5th, 2021 - The Osijek International Digital Agriculture study is set to put this often overlooked Eastern Croatian city into the spotlight as the first generation of students of this study begin enrolling.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, this year, the Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Sciences (FAZOS) and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Information Technologies (FERIT) in the City of Osijek are enrolling the first generation of students in the graduate university study of Digital Agriculture.

It is a study with the participation of professors and lecturers from abroad, classes will be held in English, and enrollment is possible until the 11th of October, 2021. There are 20 more places available, and in the first year, everyone will be exempt from tuition fees and will learn how to improve agricultural production in Croatia, but also in the world, in a unique study for future jobs.

According to Zdenko Loncaric, the vice dean for teaching and quality management of FAZOS, the study is for those who have completed agronomy, food technology, forestry, nutrition, biology, computer science, economics and other studies in these areas.

“By launching this study, Croatia has the opportunity to position itself as a centre of excellence for digital agriculture. It's significant that it opened in Slavonia, our most important agricultural region, with huge potential for further development, which, unfortunately, was underused due to huge levels of emigration. That said, I'm convinced that, thanks to the occupations and skills that can be acquired in this study, the negative demographic trend can slow down and place Slavonia back among the ranks of some of the most important food producers in the EU. The study is in English because it is primarily intended for students from abroad, but also because of the professors we have included in the programme. Although the coronavirus pandemic made internationalisation more difficult, a dozen professors from abroad have already been included in the study,'' Loncaric revealed when discussing the Osijek International Digital Agriculture study's foundations

The partner of the Digital Agriculture studio is the very well known and respected Agrivi, a Croatian technology company that will offer scholarships and provide jobs to the best of the first generation of students.

Matija Zulj, founder and director of Agrivi, explained that digitalisation can significantly increase the productivity of agricultural production, improve local self-sufficiency, increase farmers' earnings, and give consumers a completely transparent insight into the process of food production.

"In our company, we're constantly looking for experts with knowledge of digital agriculture, who will work not only on the digitalisation of agriculture in Croatia, but on projects of digital transformation with some of the largest global food producers," concluded Zulj.

For more on Croatian agriculture, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.