ZAGREB, November 25, 2020 - The Croatian Parliament on Wednesday passed the new Foreign Nationals Act under which there will no longer be an annual quota for the employment of foreign nationals.

None of the 32 amendments put forward by the opposition were accepted.

Under the new law, the government will no longer establish an annual quota for the employment of foreign nationals, but employers will be obliged to submit a request to the Croatian Employment Service (HZZ) to conduct a labour market test.

If there are no unemployed persons in Croatia that meet employers' criteria, employers will then submit an application for residence and work permits to the Interior Ministry, which then requests an opinion from the HZZ regarding hiring a specific foreign national. The procedure, including the labour market test, will last a maximum of 30 days.

The act also stipulates exceptions to the labour market test, which is not conducted for shortage occupations, such as carpenters, masons, waiters, butchers, and for seasonal work up to 90 days in agriculture, forestry, hospitality and tourism.

The new act also introduces long-stay visas (visa D) in the event that a third-country national is granted temporary residence for work, family reunification, university education, research and secondary education.

Another novelty is a more favourable regulation of temporary and permanent residence for Croats with a foreign citizenship or without a citizenship who have a certificate from the Central State Office for Croats Abroad.

In addition, family members of Croatian nationals can acquire permanent residence under more favourable conditions, as can foreign minors who have been granted temporary residence for a period of three years and one of their parents has been granted permanent residence or long-term residence.

The act also gives the possibility of regulating the temporary residence of digital nomads, that is, foreign nationals who work online for foreign employers.

The new Foreign Nationals Act enters into force on 1 January 2021.

As Marija Crnjak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 24th of November, 2020, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which blocked their HoReCa segment and the festival business overnight, Zagreb's craft brewery The Garden Brewery, whose shares have been listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange since the spring, managed to increase total revenues by 20 percent in the first three quarters of 2020 thanks to export growth which has doubled compared to last year.

With the strong growth of the European export market, The Garden Brewery managed to enter the huge market of China during this crisis year, thus cracking the Asian market and the expansion of that brewery to Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

Next year, the goal is America, they revealed from The Garden Brewery, which just won gold for the second time as the best brewery in the EU, according to the 2.2 million votes of Beer 52, the largest beer club in the world. Tom O’Hara, the brewery’s director, explains that this year has been a year of quick solutions, innovation and launching entirely new processes. Like many, the pandemic closed The Garden Brewery overnight and they had to turn directly to consumers.

Through their webstore and social media, they discovered audiences across Europe who were interested in trying their beers at home. That opened up a whole new sales channel, O’Hara says. Their distributors across Europe quickly adapted to the situation, which brought them export growth in the first three quarters of 2020, seeing it grow by a massive 108 percent, and exports have also been the largest generator of growth this year.

Despite the decline of HoReCa and festivals, The Garden Brewery had a 20 percent increase in total revenue thanks to exports in the first three quarters of 2020, with investment in production doubling, meaning it can now produce 2 million litres of beer a year.

The Garden Brewery's founder David Plant pointed out that the pandemic has accelerated change so strongly, that he is confident it will emerge from this with a much stronger position. Here in Croatia, the losses were very large due to the pandemic, the abolition of festivals and the weaker summer season, and also the earthquake, but good cooperation with partners supermarkets means they can expect a decent 2021.

Next year, in addition to export growth in Asia, The Garden Brewery plans to explore entering the US market. "In these 4 years, we've come a long way and I believe that next year we'll continue to prove ourselves as an important, fast-growing, innovative global craft brewery from Croatia," concluded Plant.

Entering the Asian market could be a new milestone for the company, too. Tom O’Hara explains that the Asian craft beer market has been strong for the past 10 years, and in recent years it has opened its doors to the best breweries in Europe and America. Their consumers are well informed and know what they're looking for, and that is quality, innovative products. The possibilities for The Garden Brewery there are, as such - endless.

"Entering such a large and important market like that of China requires a lot of time and planning. We work with an excellent Chinese distributor who loves our beer and story and together we went through all the logistics, paperwork and regulations together, gaining a good impression of which beer flavours do well there and which don’t. After a few deliveries alone, we're recording significant growth, the potential is obviously huge and a few of our beers have simply been on fire. Next year we're planning some tours and events across China and cooperation with Chinese breweries, we can't wait,'' revealed David Plant.

He is aware that starting a business in China can mean a huge shift for their business, but at the same time they need to continue to innovate new styles of beer too, as well as work to maintain excellence in their own products and business.

Within Asia, each country has its own story, from the stage of market development to regulation and consumer taste, but the first indications for many of these countries are very positive indeed.

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ZAGREB, Nov 25, 2020 - There are currently 94 COVID patients in Cakovec hospital and since 130 inpatient beds have been prepared, the health system is close to being filled to capacity as only 30% of the capacity is available, hospital director Tomislav Novinscak warned on Wednesday.

Croatian Medical Chamber president Kresimir Luetic visited the Cakovec hospital and met with the management of the hospital and the Medjimurje County Public Health Institute.

The hospital director said that of the 94 hospitalised COVID patients, 13 were on ventilators.

"We are seeing an increase as we have released eight and admitted 12 patients. We also have about ten positive doctors, which is not a big issue for now, but an increase in the number of infected staff members is visible," Novinscak said.

Percentage of positive tests yesterday at 57%

Medjimurje County Public Health Institute head Marina Payerl-Pal said that there were currently 1,312 infected persons and the 14-day incidence rate was above 1,400.

"Yesterday we registered the highest percentage of positive tests of 57%. Over 400 people were tested, that is a really large number and there is a similar trend today," Payerl-Pal said.

The HLK president, Cakovec hospital director and head of the Medjimurje Public Health Institute agreed that stricter measures were introduced late.

Luetic said that the consequences of the epidemic could be seen in the hospital.

"We believe that the current measures are insufficient and that the influx of patients in the Cakovec hospital and some others is putting too much strain on the health system," the HLK president said.

He added that even after three weeks, stricter measures requested by the profession had not been adopted at the national level.

Luetic warned that with a death rate like the current one, "corona is on its way to become the leading cause of daily deaths in Croatia".

ZAGREB, Nov 25, 2020 - Minister of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy Josip Aladrovic said on Wednesday that each new epidemiological measure would be accompanied by an economic countermeasure, a sort of compensation for the business sector that would be presented soon.

"We have shown so far that we know how to cope with the pandemic by using compensatory measures," Minister Aladrovic told reporters, announcing that with the new epidemiological measures to be adopted due to the deteriorated epidemiological situation, the government would also present new economic countermeasures.

Aware of the uncertainty faced by businesses, notably in the services sector,  the government will help all enterprises that find themselves in an unfavourable situation, the minister said, adding that the new economic countermeasures would be announced in the next few days, after the new epidemiological measures were defined.

"Each epidemiological measure will have an economic countermeasure. That is how we have acted since the first day of the epidemic," claimed Aladrovic.

Asked whether the government was willing to compensate night club owners for shutting down their businesses, Aladrovic said that the economy cannot afford demands based on "a certain percentage of last year's income."

"That depends on what you consider to be compensation, the measures applied so far can be considered as compensation, too," he said.

Aladrovic reiterated that the government had invested HRK 7.5 billion in the business sector to offset the consequences of the coronavirus crisis.

The Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK) today called on the government to compensate tradesmen should their businesses have to go into lockdown and called for an urgent meeting to define the best solution to the hardships encountered by tradesmen in doing business in the current epidemic.

ZAGREB, Nov 25, 2020 - President Zoran Milanovic said in a message marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Wednesday that every woman or girl must always be safe and free from violence.

"Every woman and girl must always stay safe and free from violence. The government must ensure continued public awareness and education about this," the president said on his Facebook account.

He called for total commitment to promoting equality, the right to choose and the right to non-discrimination, with the message #orangetheworld.

His message coincided with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the global campaign "16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence" organised by UN Women.

November 25, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as Qatar Airways increases traffic to Zagreb in December.

Croatian AviationCroatian Aviation reports that Qatar Airways, the national carrier of Qatar, will increase the number of weekly flights on the Doha - Zagreb route in December.

Qatar Airways currently operates on the Doha - Zagreb - Doha route only once a week, every Friday, on A320 aircraft. These are drastically fewer weekly flights as a direct result of weak demand caused by the global pandemic.

Last summer, Qatar Airways operated on this route as many as 14 times a week, and this summer the route to Dubrovnik was supposed to begin.

Qatar Airways stopped traffic to Zagreb during the pandemic, and the airline brought back the route on July 1 with three flights per week. Due to low demand, flights were suspended even during the summer season for two weeks, in August and September. Qatar has since stayed on one flight a week to Zagreb.

An extra flight on Wednesdays in December

The airline will briefly increase the number of weekly flights on this route. In addition to the flight on Friday, a flight is reintroduced on Wednesdays in December. Both flights will be operated weekly by A320 aircraft with a capacity of 132 seats in the carrier's fleet; 12 in business and 120 in economy class. The extra flight will operate according to the same schedule, with an afternoon departure from Zagreb Airport.

Doha 07:45 - 11:45 Zagreb 15:35 - 23:00 Doha

The temporary increase of Qatar Airways during the Christmas and New Year holidays is certainly a logical move by the company, considering that Croatian citizens will want to travel to Croatia at this time, and it is generally known that a large number of Slovenian citizens use this line.

From 1,188 to 2,376 available seats on this line in December

The question remains what Qatar Airways will do with the Zagreb route in January and February, or the traditionally bad months when demand is relatively low even under normal circumstances. The airline planned to connect the Zagreb line with Vienna, but that did not happen.

One thing is for sure - if Croatia's biggest markets, primarily from Asia, are reactivated in the summer flight schedule next year, Qatar Airways will certainly react by increasing the weekly frequencies on this route. A minimum of four flights a week should not be in question, especially when we take into account that Emirates will not fly to Zagreb next summer, and probably not Korean Air either.

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ZAGREB, November 25, 2020 - An exhibition called "From Earthquake to Earthquake 1880-2020" was opened at the Museum of Arts and Crafts on Tuesday, marking the museum's 140th anniversary.

Among those attending were President Zoran Milanovic and Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek.

Over the past 150 years, compared with other cities in Europe, Zagreb has actually suffered very little in this earthquake area, an area of unrest, war, suffering, killing. Zagreb has been trampled, destroyed, set on fire, bombed relatively little compared with them, the president said.

"May this which happened at the end of March this year be and remain one of the biggest afflictions we... experienced," the president said, referring to the March earthquake.

Zagreb is a beautiful city, among the 20 most beautiful in Europe, and it "is waiting to be finally and definitely touched up, which will require a partnership between citizens, owners, the city and the Croatian state," said Milanovic

Minister Obuljen Korzinek said the exhibition was aimed at showing people just a small piece of the damage museums and cultural assets in Zagreb sustained in the March earthquake.

She recalled that the European Parliament decided on Monday to give Croatia €680 million from the Solidarity Fund to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake, including over €100 million intended for the reconstruction of the cultural heritage.

ZAGREB, November 25, 2020 - Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric said on Tuesday, on the occasion of UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, that "we cannot allow the home to become a place of fear again" in current lockdowns due to COVID-19.

The first COVID-19 lockdowns this past spring led to many CoE member states to report record increases in domestic abuse, she said in a statement, adding that a recent UN Women study revealed increased sexual harassment, stalking, sexting and other forms of online violence.

"One of our most significant international treaties, the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) calls for specific measures against such violence, such as 24-hour hotlines and counselling services, access to shelters for victims, restraining and protection orders and swift police interventions," said Pejcinovic Buric.

"As we mark the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in the midst of an enduring pandemic, lockdowns have proven to be a unique challenge for all of the above. We need to ensure that renewed restrictions on movement do not cause more harm to women and children. But steps can be taken to ensure that the home does not become a place of fear again," she added.

"Effective measures to prevent violence against women must be a key part of renewed lockdowns. Continued and safe access to support services such as shelters must be ensured as essential," she said.

Creative solutions that worked in some countries earlier this year, from free travel for victims to support services, or information provided to victims of domestic violence by local pharmacies, should be encouraged and adapted, Pejcinovic Buric said.

"If not already carried out, police officers and health professionals should be given guidelines to both identify and help victims of domestic abuse, for example by pro-actively reaching out to women who have sought help before."

"Even before the pandemic struck, women and girls with disabilities, of migrant origin, without a permanent home or from ethnic, religious or language minorities, often had difficulties accessing information on available support and protection," she said.

She called on those states that have not yet done so to ratify the Istanbul Convention, and recalled that the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women (GREVIO) monitors "that states party to the Convention follow its guidelines."

Croatia ratified the Convention in 2018.

"Restrictions of movement, financial constraints and uncertainty cannot be allowed to embolden perpetrators - whether at home or online. For all such forms of violence, we must maintain zero tolerance," said Pejcinovic Buric.