ZAGREB, 19 May, 2021 - Bosnian police arrested Croatian football manager Zoran Mamić in the southern town of Međugorje on Wednesday morning based on a warrant issued by Croatia.

Mamić will be handed over to the State Court which will decide on Croatia's request for his extradition.

Mamić has confirmed earlier that he holds dual Croatian and Bosnian citizenship and wants to serve the prison sentence imposed on him by a Croatian court in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Bosnian State Court is expected to reject the extradition request on the ground that Mamić holds Bosnian citizenship.

Mamić has been sentenced in Croatia to four years and eight months in prison for siphoning funds from the Dinamo Zagreb football club.

The Zagreb County Court issued a warrant for his arrest on 12 May after he failed to report for serving his sentence.

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ZAGREB, 19 May, 2021 - The European Parliament on Tuesday adopted a report on the review of the EU Solidarity Fund and called on the Commission to facilitate the use of aid from the fund for regions struck by natural disasters, noting that 2020 was a great challenge, in particular for Croatia.

The EP pointed to the difficulties faced by beneficiary countries when it comes to determining precise amounts of damage in very short periods of time. It said that climate change and the intensification of natural disasters were making member states increasingly vulnerable and that the EU should speed up aid disbursement to regions affected by natural disasters.

MEPs therefore called on the Commission to explore ways of removing administrative barriers and to demonstrate maximum flexibility in fund allocation.

Parliament called for special attention to be paid to outermost regions, islands and regions prone to seismic or volcanic activity that are the most at risk of natural disasters.

The report was adopted by 668 votes in favour, 10 against and 18 abstentions.

Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit said that 17 member states, including Croatia, and three accession countries had been allocated funds to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.

He noted that Croatia was one of the countries that had been allocated the largest amount of financial aid, given that it was also struck by two strong earthquakes and a series of minor tremors. A total of €683.7 million was disbursed to Croatia already after the first earthquake in 2020. This is the largest amount ever paid out after a natural disaster, he added.

Schmit said that Croatia would take a long time to recover and would need additional funding, adding that this only showed how important the Solidarity Fund was.

The EU Solidarity Fund was established in 2020 to provide aid to member states in the event of major natural disasters and other emergencies.

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May the 19th, 2021 - Croatian new tech expert Djuro Lubura believes that Croatia should make it possible for autonomous vehicle testing to take place within the country. He also touched on the topic of digital nomads and how Croatia should behave given its dire demographic picture.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, back at the beginning of the year, a new Law on Foreigners came into force in Croatia, according to which digital nomads can be granted a stay of one year. TCN has been actively involved in that process and more can be read in our dedicated section on it.

Among other things, the condition is that the person isn't a Croatian citizen, that they're performing work through telecommunication technologies, but not for an employer from Croatia, that they have health insurance and that they aren't a threat to the constitutional order. Court and new technologies expert Djuro Lubura commented on the topic of digital nomads, regulations and the introduction of 5G in a recent interview.

Digital nomads

''A person who wants to be a digital nomad and fulfills all the conditions, can submit their request for a temporary residence permit in the consular mission of Croatia in their country or at a competent police administration. The stay is limited in time probably because by law, the digital nomad is included among the other categories of temporary residence that already exist.

According to current interpretations, it won't be possible for them to extend their stay on that basis. I don’t believe anyone will decide on such a complication in life. In Croatia, with the demographics it has, everyone should be welcome, especially highly educated and professional people like digital nomads,'' believes Djuro Lubura.

As the coronavirus pandemic has confirmed, a large number of jobs can be done remotely, and Djuro Lubura expects that with the application of modern technologies and better infrastructure, we can expect further opening of new freedom for both employees and company owners/employers.

"The winners will be those countries that adapt and pass more liberal and flexible laws for digital nomads. Those who don't adapt will face additional depopulation. Croatia must not gamble on its chance here. One of the most important changes in the direction of enabling the development of new technologies and business models based on them is the liberalisation of the taxi market.

Prime Minister Plenkovic and Minister Butkovic proposed to the Parliament a law that was supported by as many as two thirds of MPs, and brought the arrival of Uber and then other platforms that enable cheaper and more accessible taxi transport to the country. The Croatian solution for the liberalisation of the taxi market is being copied by numerous European countries.

The law that liberalised the taxi market has led to significantly lower prices in taxi services and new employment, and today we have about 8,000 taxi vehicles operating throughout Croatia, twice as many as there were before this new law came into force,'' Lubura explained.

"When the state liberalised the taxi market, it sent out a signal that it was open to new technologies and business models, Glovo, Wolt and other platforms started operating in Croatia, which brought significant benefits to both residents and the economy in the food delivery market," he added.

Lubura believes that in the future, Croatia should enable the testing of autonomous vehicles on its roads and thus facilitate the development not only of Rimac Automobili, but also attract many other companies. Preparations are also underway for an auction of the radio frequency spectrum that will enable the introduction of 5G technology, and all telecom operators in Croatia - HT, A1 and Telemach - are currently testing out 5G.

The importance of mobile networks

"We expect even higher investments in both fixed and mobile networks. Croatia is already at the top of the list of countries with the best mobile communication networks in all of Europe, while when it comes to fixed networks we have some room for improvement, especially outside densely populated areas. Telemach's entry into the fixed communications market will lead to a better offer and lower service prices.

If the price of the spectrum is acceptable and if it's all well designed enough to encourage operators to invest, of which I have no doubt because HAKOM, which implements these frequencies, is seriously looking into how it can encourage development and thus provide the state with a greater benefit, much of Croatia will be covered by state-of-the-art fifth-generation mobile networks. This will make Croatia even more attractive to digital nomads, but also to numerous startups with new ideas,'' concluded Croatian tech expert Djuro Lubura.

For more, follow our lifestyle section.

May the 19th, 2021 - One Karlovac company from Vojnic is engaged in the innovative creation of prefabricated construction elements, which comes as a pleasant piece of information following the earthquakes which struck Zagreb and Sisak-Moslavina in March and December 2020.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, although the construction sector in the modern economy is always one of the carriers of overall development, for example in Germany it constantly accounts for 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), in Croatia it is now additionally relevant due to the earthquakes of 2020 and the need for the comprehensive reconstruction of both Zagreb and Banovina.

Prefabricated construction on the Croatia market is quite a new trend, but brick construction is a centuries-old tradition and brick is certainly the most common material in construction in general, with more or less everyone still very much relying on such traditional forms of construction.

The construction sector and the production of construction materials themselves hold a significant share in the Croatian economy. The market, which is supplied with seemingly identical products, now requires innovative ideas and creative products that bring solutions which are more advanced than others.

One such solution to the Croatian construction sector is provided by Redbloc S.E.E. from Vojnic with its innovative system of prefabricated building elements that has been used throughout Europe for more than fifteen years now.

As this Karlovac company points out, Redbloc's technology is the only system on the market today that can efficiently produce prefabricated parts from building materials of mineral origin and allows for the production of semi-finished brick walls in just a few hours.

With this innovative system, it's possible to produce up to 400 square metres of prefabricated brick wall in one day, which can be delivered to a construction site in a very short period of time. The elements are ready for transport within an hour after production. Recently, the Karlovac company Redbloc S.E.E. and the City of Karlovac have signed an agreement on the purchase and sale of land on which the construction of a production plant is planned.

“The most modern robotic technology in terms of semi-finished construction elements is the future of construction and brings easy, rapid, massive and fully automated solutions. Complete automation undoubtedly represents a revolution in the construction of family houses, apartment buildings and industrial buildings.

The Karlovac company's prefabricated brick system integrates all quality segments that characterise a conventionally built solid brick house, using the efficiency of prefabricated construction methods. I hope that the production plant of our company will provide new employment opportunities for the population of Karlovac and its surroundings by the end of the year, when we intend to start production,'' explained the company director Ante Andresi.

From Karlovac, they point out that the company Redbloc S.E.E. certainly contributes to the development of the local and overall economy, using building materials from Croatian manufacturers such as the Wienerberger brick factory in Karlovac.

For more, follow Made in Croatia.

May the 19th, 2021 - Krk beaches are set to get a helping hand thanks to a European Union project which aims to tackle the issue of plastic and waste, artificial intelligence and the ever-interesting world of robots. 

As Morski/Dejan Kosic writes, in accordance with the strategic commitment aimed at preserving the environment and sustainable development, Ponikve is continuously launching various projects with this aim firmly in mind. Among other things, about a decade or so ago they launched a very well-received project called "Blue Bag/Plava Vreca", and now they are involved in another European Union project called "In-No-Plastic".

It is an innovative approach to the prevention of dumping, the disposal and reuse of marine plastic waste, and the project was launched on October the 1st last year, lasting until September the 30th, 2023. It involves seventeen partners from the European Union, all of whom are interested in reducing the negative impact of plastics on the sea and in the environment in general.

The goal of the project is to develop an efficient and automated solution to prevent wastewater and rainwater pollution by micro and macro plastics that, ultimately, ends up in the seas and oceans and returns to our tables within the food chain.

The total funds provided for this project amount to 7.4 million euros, and the budget proposal for Ponikve eco island of Krk is a little more than 308 thousand euros, of which 70 percent will be withdrawn from a European Union programme called "Horizon 2020", and the rest will be provided by Ponikve. In addition to Ponikve eco island Krk, two other Croatian partners are working on the project, Probotica from Zagreb and Sensum from Rijeka.

As part of this project, selected Krk beaches and bays will have macro plastics removed using innovative automated processes, more precisely - robots. The plastic thus collected along Krk beaches will be processed and useful new items will be made from it.

During the project, environmental cleaning campaigns will be organised using a special mobile application (app). In addition, seven-week demonstrations of the 3D printing of the collected waste from Krk beaches will be held every year at various locations across the island.

In Ponikve, they hope that this project will also be met with a good response from residents and other citizens, whose involvement will contribute to the success of the planned activities.

For more, follow our lifestyle section.

May 19, 2021 - The Vinkovci City Museum has become the second pet-friendly museum in Croatia! 

HRTurizam reports that museums around the world are celebrating International Museum Day with the theme “The Future of Museums: Recovery and Rethinking.” Numerous Croatian museums joined the celebration, including the Vinkovci City Museum, which has become a pet-friendly museum as of Tuesday!

The number of pet-friendly destinations in Croatia and the world is constantly growing, especially in the tourism sector, and more and more often, many museums are opening their doors to pets. As of Tuesday, the selected society of European and world museums has been joined by the Vinkovci City Museum, which, unlike most others, visitors will be able to enter with pets during regular working hours.

"We have thus become the second museum in Croatia and the first museum that allows its visitors to visit the museum with their pets during regular working hours. The Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb is the first pet-friendly museum, but it allows you to visit with pets only on Saturdays. We have promulgated house rules, rules that must be known. We must not forget that some people are afraid of dogs, but this action intends to get rid of fear, to accept the fact that our pets are our responsibility, but also joy and pleasure," said the director of the museum Hrvoje Vulić.

Pets marked the International Museum Day in Vinkovci. Several foster dogs were shown, children participated in the workshop "Find a paw," several workshops on pets were held in the Gallery with the museum therapy dog Bella "Meet the museum snout," and the organizers prepared a tour of the museum with Bella and an award for the most beautiful selfie of the day with a pet in the museum.

To learn more about museums in Croatia, check out our Total Croatia page. 

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

May the 19th, 2021 - Of the massive sum of 5.5 billion kuna in so-called Croatian covid guarantees, only a mere 20 percent has been approved as yet. Many people, from business owners to the banks themselves, has opinions as to why that is.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has recently underlined the key role of the state during the ongoing coronavirus crisis, recalling the fact that the Croatian Government has so far paid out 10.5 billion kuna through job preservation measures and that the ORM measures have covered a total of 687,000 employees and 120,000 employers.

However, unlike the aforementioned direct fiscal aid, which has been being extended and expanded as time has gone on, national guarantee programmes for the economy have failed miserably from their initially planned levels. Most of these programmes were adopted last year, and so far, less than a fifth of the planned amounts of Croatian covid guarantees have been approved.

Croatian covid guarantees in the amount of more than 1.53 percent of GDP are planned through budget-funded and approved by the European Commission's Covid-guarantees covering 80 to 100 percent of the loan principal. That's equal to more than 5.5 billion. According to the data presented in the Government Convergence Programme 2022-2024, so far, an amount equal to just 0.26 percent of GDP has been approved, which is equal to less than a billion kuna.

Various participants have their own thoughts and opinions about the reasons for such low utilisation, from HBOR and HAMAG-BICRO, which are in charge of approving these Croatian covid guarantees, to the banks and even to the business owners themselves. Some believe that the problem is the lack of interest of commercial banks as the first address to which enterprises typically turn.

Others (even the banks themselves) point out overcomplicated rules and the typically Croatian problem of there being far too much administration. Small enterprises also see a problem in the lack of information.

The HAMAG-BICRO agency admits that the figures are "less than expected" given the level of coverage of state guarantees. They also point out that they "promptly processed all requests they received from banks", and that the figure in that sense stands at about 154 million kuna.

It should be noted that some large banks, unlike, for example, ESIF guarantee programmes, haven't even entered into agreements with the Agency for individual national guarantee programmes.

HBOR, on the other hand, says that in addition to loan insurance and guarantee programs implemented under the coronavirus measures, almost 1.4 billion kuna in loans have been approved so far. The largest part refers to loans secured by the Export Liquidity Loan Portfolio Insurance Programme, which is implemented in cooperation with 14 banks.

"Under this programme, banks independently make the decision to include approved loans in the secured portfolio according to pre-agreed conditions, ie without the need for additional approval by HBOR for each individual loan," they explain.

They also state that all programmes within the scope of coronavirus measures remain active. Depending on the terms and conditions of a particular programme, they allow coverage of up to 80, 90 or 100 percent of the loan principal amount, and in some cases they even pay regular interest. The implementation of these programmes is currently scheduled for the end of June, and is expected to be extended until the end of the year, in line with the duration of the EC's Temporary Framework.

In addition, back in November 2020, HBOR introduced the Insurance Premium Subsidy programme, which enables liquidity loan users secured through a portfolio or individual insurance programme to subsidise the cost of their insurance premiums by up to one hundred percent.

Enterprises affected by the pandemic have so far, however, made it known that they are primarily interested in grants. For example, according to a survey by the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) from back in February, as many as 94 percent of 1,700 respondents suggested this, while only 6 percent expressed some level of interest in financial instruments, ie guarantees and loans.

“One of the reasons for that certainly lies in excessive regulation, administration and bureaucracy in achieving the proper conditions for financial instruments. It's currently one of the most complicated in the entire EU. This was confirmed to us in talks with the banks themselves, which are trying to influence the relaxation of these conditions,'' they claim from HUP.

The low utilisation of state guarantee programmes, according to them, can be explained by the "fiscal exhaustion of the economy.''

The lower interest of enterprise owners stems, in addition, from the fact that loans, at least for larger companies, are already available at low interest rates from commercial banks. In the Voice of Entrepreneurs Association (UGP), which is primarily the “voice” of those micro and small companies, warranty programmes are generally considered “good things”, especially given the degree of coverage, yet they still see several reasons for their poor utilisation.

One of them is the problem of education or insufficient information. However, UGP also says that banks often don't treat these guarantees as first-class, so in the end the loan amounts are reduced, as they claim, "by more than half". In addition, they say that banks continue to approach loan processing very conservatively.

"If they believe that an individual company has no prospects according to their projections, it's unlikely that the loan will be approved even with a guarantee," they said, emphasising primarily coronavirus-crisis-affected companies that have current liquidity problems.

Finally, in addition to the Croatian covid guarantees provided by the state, there are currently many other guarantee programmes, including those coming from European institutions such as the EIB, which are directly obtained by commercial banks. The association also notes that "banks put more emphasis on other types of insurance, such as insurance for land, halls and machinery."

Regarding other guarantees, HAMAG also points out that enterprises still have ESIF guarantee programmes to use if they want to (individual and portfolio, for investments and working capital and for rural development).

These financial instruments, based on the signed agreements (with the Agency's guarantee for a part of the principal and agreed interest), facilitate access to financing for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and encourage credit activity, they claim. 

HUP says that despite the biggest crisis in 25 years, enterprises are ready to create and invest in new projects (according to the survey, up to 21 billion kuna in five years) if they are given the investment momentum through grants.

Therefore, over the past few months, they've persistently called for more grants to be available to the private sector through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the main purpose of which is to ensure recovery from the ongoing public health and economic crisis and resilience to the future in the short term, they say.

For more, follow our dedicated politics section.

May 19, 2021 - The latest flight news to Croatia as United Airlines flights to Dubrovnik will begin a week earlier than initially planned!

Croatian Aviation reports that just a few days after announcing an additional flight (from 3 to 4 flights a week) on the new route between New York and Dubrovnik, United Airlines made another operational change.

On April 18, United Airlines announced that it would introduce the New York-Dubrovnik-New York route in this year's summer flight schedule. The line was originally announced from July 8, three times a week, with departures from New York on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, and return from Dubrovnik a day later, until October 3 this year.

In the meantime, Delta Air Lines also announced the introduction of a direct route to Dubrovnik (also from New York, John F. Kennedy Airport). However, the airline planned to launch the route a week before United and operate on it four times a week, with one flight a week more than United.

United subsequently announced that it would still increase the number of operations to Dubrovnik and thus equalize Delta's number of flights, which happened, and both companies now offer four flights a week to Dubrovnik from July.

"As we start to see a strong desire from our customers to travel internationally to re-opened countries, we are excited to move up service and add a fourth weekly flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia," said Patrick Quayle, vice president of international network and alliances at United.  

As of Tuesday, United Airlines is offering a direct flight to Dubrovnik earlier than originally planned. Namely, the inaugural flight was pushed up to a week earlier, and the first plane from New York will take off for Dubrovnik on Thursday, July 1. The earlier launch of this line will provide an additional 1,712 seats between the two cities.

Follow the latest on flights to Croatia HERE and the latest travel updates and COVID-19 news from Croatia HERE.

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