July 9, 2020 - The British Telegraph promoted the Croatian island of Solta and described it as the perfect place to relax after quarantine. Recall, Croatia and the United Kingdom have formed an air bridge, and quarantine will not apply for tourists returning home from Croatia.

Index.hr writes that Telegraph journalist Mary Novakovich,  originally from Croatia, spent some time on the island of Solta and detailed her experience in an article titled, 'The forgotten Croatian island that offers a perfect post-lockdown escape'.

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"It’s an unknown quantity for most British visitors, but is seen by locals as a suburb of Split. If only all suburbs had pebbly coves, olive groves, vineyards, blue-green Adriatic waters and the languid atmosphere that makes the Dalmatian coast so appealing," the article reads.

"People sit in cafes along the waterfront. As I walk, I can smell the restaurant and hear street musicians playing folk music," the journalist wrote.

Novakovich also revealed that she tasted local fish and olive oil and praised the flavors. Although she thought that Solta was a bit deserted, when she came to Stomorska, she realized that it was actually a busy island with many people.

"Still, it is not a crowd that can be compared to the one on Hvar or Brac," she added.

She also said that people kept asking if she belonged to a family from Solta because of her Croatian surname.

“I had to keep repeating that I was originally from Lika,” she explained.

She also admitted that she would exchange the mountains she was used to every day for the sea in Dalmatia.

"The beaches are beautiful. I don't like sand, so I was happy that almost all the beaches on Solta were pebbly or rocky," she added.'

You can read Mary Novakovich's full account on her Solta experience on The Telegraph HERE.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 8th of July, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Croatian economy is among the three most affected in the EU, and the European Commission's summer forecasts are that our GDP could fall by 10.8 percent. Minister Maric said that Croatia is sticking to its estimate of a 9.1 percent GDP drop, but also announced higher salaries for about a million residents.

When it comes to government finances, Minister Maric reported that back in June, the decline in the amount of fiscalised receipts compared to June last year was about 16.5 percent. As for budget revenues, VAT in June, he pointed out, saw a plus when compared to June 2019, due to the overflow from May, so this isn't a realistic look at things, but since the beginning of the year, tax revenues have fallen by a total of between 13 and 15 percent.

The Croatian Government plans to achieve wage growth by reducing income tax rates from 36 to 30 percent and from 24 to 20 percent, which is a move residents will immediately feel in their pockets and bank accounts.

When asked by journalists whether this means that, due to the reduction of income tax, about a million residents will have higher salaries in the first year of the new government's mandate, he answered briefly: "That's right."

Economist Zeljko Lovrincevic agrees with Miniser Maric's forecast that the economic downturn should be slightly smaller than the European Commission's currently dire estimates. How the drop in GDP will affect the standard of living of Croatian residents, he says, depends primarily on whether there will be compensatory measures for the economy and employment support, and of course the question is then who will finance them. It also depends on what the wage policy will be. What is certain is that the state doesn't have much room to help the economy at this moment in time.

The aid plan is questionable...

When it comes to aid of 10 billion euros that should come from the European Union itself, Lovrincevic noted that there has been no talk of that from Europe.

''That plan hasn't been agreed. That rabbit is still far away in the forest,'' said Lovrincevic.

Economist Damir Novotny said that, if you look at the economic history after the Second World War, there were incomparably worse situations than the one we're in today. Since the 1990s, he recalls, Croatia has had a bad economic situation for a whole decade, due to the Homeland War. The economic situation, he continues, began to improve in 2002, when wages also rose, and then came 2008. As a result of the financial crisis, 150,000 people in the private sector lost their jobs. The state sector then protected itself, taxes were raised in the then-introduced crisis tax, meaning that the state sector passed practically unscathed.

Government measures are crucial

Novotny states that Croatia has had very anemic economic growth over the last ten years, but admits that the government has responded well with its various measures to try to save jobs. How this crisis will affect regular people, he says, is currently difficult to assess. He agrees that it all depends on how long the government’s measures to help the economy will last.

''The big question is how long they can last, but it's certainly not infinite. What happened back in 2009 could happen again if the government's intervention doesn't continue. Recovery must be accelerated and that's something I hope will happen, because today we're in different circumstances than we were back in 2009 because we're also now a member of the EU, where we have access to the anti-recession measures that are offered,'' noted Novotny.

He also pointed out that European Union money, which is intended to help the economy, will probably be conditioned by the implementation of structural reforms, without which, Croatia won't get its pockets filled.

Lovrincevic and Novotny both agree that the situation for Croatia would be much better if we were a member of the European Monetary Union because we would have even more measures at our disposal to help the economy damaged by the coronavirus crisis.

Andrej Plenkovic doesn't have time to wait around for the economic storm that is on its way to Croatia and he will have to quickly put together a team that will be there to face many challenges. The elections will be repeated at one polling station next week, and only after that will the final results of the parliamentary elections be announced. That's when the deadlines for constituting the Parliament and forming a new government will begin. Andrej Plenkovic can calmly wait for consultations with President Zoran Milanovic because he collected the required 76 hands in half a day. He spoke with President Milanovic on Monday, and after the announcement of the final election results, they'll contact him again to arrange a formal meeting.

It is to be expected that Plenkovic could get the mandate to form the Government by the end of next week at the latest, and then he has thirty days to form his new team. The president should convene a constituent session of the Parliament within twenty days of the announcement of the final election results, and HDZ believes that this won't be delayed and that it will occur by the end of this month.

HDZ and its partners hope that the new government will be confirmed during the first few days of August, ie, before the anniversary of Operation Storm (Oluja), on August the 5th. It was announced earlier that the Parliament, once constituted, will certainly not have a break as it has enjoyed so far, but all of that needs to be discussed and worked out.

For more, follow our politics page.

As Novac writes on the 7th of July, 2020, the IGH Institute and HZ Infrastruktura signed a contract on the supervision of the works on the reconstruction of the Zagreb West Station - Savski Marof rail line worth a massive 5.3 million kuna.

This is a project that is largely financed by a loan from the World Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and relates to the 17.8-kilometre section of the two-track railway line located on the RH1 corridor, which is extremely important for international freight and for suburban transport, it averages in at about 160 trains per day.

The works that will be supervised by the IGH Institute will last for thirty months, and the Railway Reconstruction Project on the Savski Marof - Zagreb West Station section includes both complete reconstructions of certain sections, as well rehabilitations and repairs.

In addition, the plan is to arrange the buildings at the Savski Marof station and at the Brdovec stop, replace existing platforms and landscaped areas with new ones in Kustosija and at the Zapresic-Savska stops and in Podsused station, install canopies at the Kustosija, Podsused, Zapresic-Savska and Brdovec stops, and introduce new security and telecommunications devices.

Upon the completion of the works being supervised by the IGH Institute on this railway section, the trains will run at a speed of 120 km/h. The safety and interoperability of railway traffic and the capacity of the railway will be higher, the costs of railway maintenance will be reduced, and the possibility of transporting more passengers in daily traffic will be improved, which is especially important for the City of Zagreb and for the wider Zagreb County.

For the IGH Institute itself, this is already the fifth significant contract signed recently on the supervision of the construction and reconstruction of extremely important pieces of infrastructure for the Republic of Croatia. Namely, contracts were recently signed with Croatian roads (Hrvatske ceste) on the supervision of the construction and reconstruction of three roads worth 12.3 million kuna and a contract with Autocesta Rijeka-Zagreb on the supervision of the rehabilitation of the Krk bridge worth just over one million kuna in total.

At the moment, the IGH Institute has about a thousand active contracts for the full range of services it provides, primarily in construction, which makes it the leading engineering company in the Republic of Croatia and the immediate region.

For more, follow our business section.

July the 8th, 2020 - The European Commission (EC) isn't very optimistic as far as Croatia's predicted GDP drop for 2020 is concerned, but is there light at the end of the tunnel for 2021, at least?

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has been wreaking havoc with the global economy and Croatia's, which is heavily reliant on tourism and hospitality, has been far from immune to these negative trends. The Croatian economy is heavily influenced by seasons, on top of that, with a drop in unemployment usually occurring at the tail end of March as business owners seek out waiters, chefs, cleaners, bar staff and more. This trend was stopped in its tracks before it could even gain any momentum by the pandemic.

April was an absolutely dire month for Croatia in every possible economic sense as lockdown saw consumption and hiring as we know it grind to a halt. Things are improving now, and in some sectors in a better way than we could have expected, but just what does the European Commission envisage for the rest of this year?

As Novac writes, Croatia will face even more severe consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic than previously thought. According to the latest forecasts published recently by the European Commission, the decline in GDP for Croatia this year will be as much as 10.8 percent, and next year the recovery will begin and growth will be 7.5 percent.

Only Italy with a drop of 11.2 percent and Spain, with a drop of 10.9 percent, will have a bigger drop than Croatia. Both of these popular Mediterranean countries which are also very tourism-oriented were hit tremendously hard by the virus. A similar category includes France, where GDP expected to fall by 10.6 percent, and Greece, the GDP of which is down by 9 percent.

From the above, it is evident that the countries for which tourism is one of the key branches will be the hardest hit. Poland, which should have a 4.6 percent drop, and Sweden, 5.3 percent, will feel the lightest of blows.

The latest report of the European Commission, along with the summer forecasts, states that the Croatian economy was more resilient before the outbreak of this crisis than it was before the global financial crisis back in 2008. The reports notes the fact that the growth of domestic demand will play the biggest role in Croatia's overall recovery next year.

For more, follow our lifestyle page.

ZAGREB, July 8, 2020 - The harvest of cool-season cereals -- wheat and barley -- as well as is in full swing in eastern Croatia and is likely to be completed in the next two weeks, the Osijek-Baranja County chamber of commerce said on Wednesday.

This year's wheat yield is likely to be higher than last year, going from 6-5 tonnes per hectare in small farms to 10.5 tonnes per hectare in fields cultivated by big agribusinesses.

The chamber's officials said that the county's yield is about 10 percent higher in comparison to 2019.

The price of wheat is likely to be 0.90-1.20 kuna per kilogram in the wholesale buy-up, depending on the quality of the crop. Under the regulations adopted for quality parameters, wheat is graded in five categories from premium to quality No. 4 as the lowest, according to test weight, the content of foreign material, protein content, and so on.

Last autumn, wheat was cultivated on 138,000 hectares in Croatia, of which 45,000 were in Osijek-Baranja County.

As far as barley is concerned, the total area sown with this culture was 57,000. The average yield is forecast at six tonnes per hectare.

The total area of rapeseed was 38,000, and its yield is likely to be lower by 10% than last year when it was 3 tonnes per hectare. The purchase price has been set at HRK 2.45-2.55 per kilogram.

ZAGREB, July 8, 2020 - President Zoran Milanovic on Wednesday called on Austrians to spend their summer vacation in Croatia, noting that Croatia's coast, where numerous Austrians traditionally spend their holidays, "is as safe as can be."

"I would like to use this opportunity to, first of all, invite Austrian citizens to visit Croatia," Milanovic said in Vienna after a meeting with his Austrian and Slovenian counterparts.

Milanovic noted that Croatia was safe with regard to the coronavirus and that incidents, which are occurring in all countries, "are relatively or absolutely rare" in Croatia.

"The coast is long, sparsely populated and there are few people. I don't want to sound overly pathetic but we are waiting for you. It is as safe as can be," Milanovic said, adding that he was speaking rationally and could substantiate what he was saying.

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen stressed that it was in the interest of the three countries to keep their borders open and that as a native of Tirol, he had a lot of understanding for people wishing to spend their vacation on the coast.

An Austrian reporter wanted to know how accurate claims were that Croatia was a safe country considering that it tested four times fewer people than Austria.

Milanovic said that Croatia did the test too little but that hospitals were not overcrowded and that a very small number of people were on ventilators, far fewer than during last year's flu season.

He added that the mortality rate in Croatia was lower than during last year's flu season.

Slovenian President Borut Pahor stressed that his country, Austria and Croatia had shown that it was possible to live relatively normally with the coronavirus, with open borders and continued economic activity.

"People comply with (epidemiological) measures if they are proven to be of vital importance," Pahor said after the seventh meeting of the three countries' presidents held in a trilateral format, with the first being held in 2014 in Vienna.

Van der Bellen said that the three countries did not want their tourism sectors to collapse and that the Austrian economy depended on neighbouring economies.

A lot of people in Austria are not aware just how intertwined we are with other countries like Croatia, Slovenia or Slovakia in terms of the economy. It is in our interest for those countries, too, to overcome the economic crisis as soon as possible, said the Austrian president.

He stressed the issue of the climate crisis, noting that a vaccine against COVID-19 would be found but that there was no vaccine against the climate crisis.

In the coming years, we will have to deal with both problems. But that also brings opportunities for Europe's sustainable recovery, said Van der Bellen, elected as president on the Greens slate.

Milanovic, too, called for greater action regarding green policies, saying that the coronavirus would pass but that problems the world was faced with due to climate change were of such magnitude "that we must not stop thinking about them for a single moment."

July 12, 2020 - Looking for the best and most authentic Croatian gourmet goodness. Karin Mimica on 25 years of Restaurant Croatica.

Just over six years ago, the fabulous  Dagmar Meneghello on Palmizana on Hvar  sent me a message and told me about a gourmet event about to start on Hvar. Some foodie journalists from an organisation called Gastronaut were coming on a three-day media tour, and Dagmar insisted that I had to be on the tour. 

And that is how I came to meet one of the most dynamic, positive and inspirational forces that exist today, the legendica that is Karin Mimica. 

Being a food tourist on my adopted island was something like this:

Day 1 - a tour of Hvar Town, including the hospitality of famous fish restaurant, Gariful. 

Day 2 - a speedboat wine tasting tour to Zlatan Otok and then speedboat transfer to the magic that is Palmizana, hosted by Dagmar. 

Day 3 - the gastronomy of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Stari Grad Plain, followed by tasting the first organic Plavac Mali, a Gold Medal winner in Germany. DAy 3 - the gastronomy of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Stari Grad Plain, followed by tasting the first organic Plavac Mali, a Gold Medal winner in Germany. 

I was hooked, and I made a mental note to never to miss an event organised by Karin Mimica. And I have been largely true to that over the last six years. 

Following Karin has led me to sensational discoveries in Medjimurje, Ozalj, Koprivnica, Djurdevac, Pag, Murter, Krk, and plenty of lesser known destinations in Croatia. And the programme has always been superbly executed, a mixture of fun, learning, and great food and wine. Of all the people I have met in my time in Croatia, nobody has given me as many authentic Croatian gourmet experiences as Karin. And for that I am truly grateful. 

I am grateful also that she has found a little time to tell us more about one of her amazing projects which is hitting its silver anniversary - the Restaurant Croatica guide. 

1. 25th edition of Restaurant Croatica - 100 best restaurants in Croatia and their recipes is almost ready to be published. Tell us about the concept and how it started.

The project 100 Leading Croatian Restaurants - Restaurants Croatica was initiated in 1995. Back then, among our diaspora in Germany, people who owned almost 3000 restaurants, an idea appeared: to help young Croatia brand itself as a country of flavor, through the offer in their restaurants. A great enthusiast and our businessman Nikola Serdar started a project in Germany, the Croatian Economy Forum, in which our restaurants found themselves with a new brand, Restaurant Croatica. Since they didn't have a clearly defined idea of Croatian cuisine or who to support, they decided to endorse the project I proposed: the selection of the 100 leading restaurants in Croatia Restaurant Croatica and publishing of the edition under the same name. The basic idea was to do market research about which restaurants best serve the needs of their guests, and highlight the best ones in order to motivate others to improve the quality and the service. The project Restaurant Croatica doesn't exist in Germany anymore, unfortunately, but here in Croatia, in Abisal company, Gastronaut editions, we are preparing the 25th edition. Nikola Serdar, who used to head all those beautiful initiatives, has moved his manufacturing to Croatia and he's still a member of the Honorary Board and the adviser to the project. In 1995, around 750 restaurants were covered in our research, and in 2019 the number has gone up to over 2400 restaurants. The inclusion of a restaurant in our survey was never financially conditioned, nor could they buy their titles in any way. In our guide, which is a result of our selection of the 100 leading restaurants, they present themselves with what they're offering, their recipes and natural, historical, and cultural environment. The 25th edition will be published during August of 2020, and the ceremony in which the plaques will be awarded is to take place on October 6th on the Marina boat in Rijeka. In addition to the restaurants, the book also presents the manufacturers of high-end products you can buy for your table and various destinations with their food and wine highlights. 

2. What methods were used to select the restaurants which made the list?

Every year, during November and December, visitors of the www.gastronaut.hr website are invited to vote for their favorite restaurants (each year, they're allowed to vote for each restaurant once). The guests grade the offer, service and the atmosphere. The restaurant needs to be in our database for the guests to be able to vote, and the addition to the database is free and over 5400 restaurants are already in the database. In the next step, the people in charge of a restaurant provide us with the detailed information about their service and what they offer, and vote for their colleagues who they believe have made the biggest positive changes. The final verdict is by the Honorary Board, keeping in mind that a restaurant needs to be ranked high both on the list created by the guests and by the colleagues, but also needs to meet a lot more criteria needed to be included in a guide, whose goal is to present the Croatian cuisine at its finest, primarily through restaurants who work year-round and are tailored to the modern guest of a refined taste. My closest collaborators, Marina Selak and Vlatko Ignatoski, graphic designer are working with me on the 25th edition. 

3. A difficult question, but how has Croatian gastronomy changed in those 25 years?

It's changed a lot. As I was going through the 1995 book, you can see in the photos that the restaurants seem to have a competition who will be able to put more food on a plate. Today, it seems that the competition is - who will be able to put less! The plates have become pieces of art. The restaurants have also become stages for many stories about the ingredients and wines and history and culture, even about fashion. The knowledge of gastronomy is much higher, people are following the worldwide trends, and the indigenous ingredients are getting the newly-found respect. 

4. Which new trends are you noticing, considering the specific situation we're in now?

Hospitality is going through a rough period, being forced to adjust to the new reality. The restaurateurs tell me that things are just different now, that they mostly see couples in the evenings, but if provided with a peaceful seating, those couples still know how to enjoy themselves. I believe more people will ask for functional menus, with ingredients that directly benefit health. In terms of ordering and technological benefits to the hospitality, I expect the increasing use of QR codes linked with the menus, which will make ordering easier for the guests, and the restaurant wouldn't have to disinfect the menus so many times during a day. We can expect the deliveries from the restaurants to keep increasing, and they could turn more creative. It is possible that pelinkovac will become one of the popular aperitifs, as the extract of the sweet wormwood is being tested as a potential cure for corona. It might even hold water, as a Chinese scientist Tu Youyou won a Nobel prize in 2015 for the cure against malaria, which is also made using the sweet wormwood extract (Artemisia annua). The story has gotten me very interested, so myself and Gastronauts have decided to look into both the plant and its extract, which is the basis for pelinkovac. 

5. It is 8 years since Anthony Bourdain discovered Croatian cuisine and found 'world-class food, world-class wine, world-class cheese.' How do you view Croatia as a gourmet tourism destination and what could we do to attract more tourists?

Croatia has great potential, both in the ingredients and in the people. I hope that people from the tourist boards will become more aware of that, and start presenting Croatia as a country of amazing flavors and food stories, which would lead to year-round tourism. I've put together leading Croatian restaurant owners and tourist journalists in my Gastronaut club, and we've organized 120 thematic gatherings thus far, in various destinations. During those meetings, the entire region is presented in its natural and historical surroundings through the prism of food. We've expanded our club's activities to Gastronaut education, where the top people from the industry share their knowledge with people from the hospitality in various locations, so we're helping them together to become a recognizable food destination. Some of those activities took place in the last year on Krk, through Krk Food Fest and in Karlovac, where we were a part of the IQM project, aimed at branding the region through the meals in which the main ingredients are beer and mushrooms from the local collection point. I always invite our colleagues, tourist journalists from Croatia and abroad to tell me if a project we're working on has a point, in terms of flavor and content, because they can see the potentials more broadly. 

6. One of the things I find interesting about Croatian cuisine is that there are very strong regional cuisines, but no real Croatian national cuisine. And it is quite rare to find the cuisine of another region in the local restaurants. What are your thoughts on this?

The local, regional specialties are always a product of the natural environment, and the history and tradition. The different parts of Croatia are in the geographical locations of completely different potentials and history and I don't think it makes sense to push them under the same umbrella. Yes, it's nice when you can taste specialties from different parts of Croatia in one place. We have restaurants by the sea where you can have continental food and sea-food restaurants in continental Croatia. The biggest bridge between the two are the pizzerias, where you find ingredients from different regions arranged on pizzas, and then the pizzas even named after the region. 

7. Which recipes have the restaurants decided to present themselves in your book this year?

Most restaurants decided to present local ingredients from their region, prepared both traditionally and creatively. Here are some of the dishes from the book:

San Rocco, Brtonigla - Marinated sole-fish fillet with chives mayo;
Domino, Dramalj - Blue fish road;
Marina, Krk - Grilled sheep cheese;
Marina, Punat - Lamb crown;
Aratore, Mali Lošinj - Drunk scampi from Kvarner;
Boškinac, Pag - Boškarin rump-steak;
Vinko, Konjevrate - Lamb tripe;
Kadena, Split - Wheat with smoked sea-food;
Knez, Omiš - Soparnik from Poljica;
Porto Rosso, Lastovo - Fish fillet in the cognac sauce;
Villa Neretva, Metković - Dalmatian pašticada;
Frankopan, Ogulin - Cream of nettle soup;
Gradina, Josipdol - Sarma made with Ogulin sauerkraut and game meat;
Karlo, Plešivica - Cream of ramsons soup;
Potkova, Zagreb - Beef cheecks in Port;
Mala hiža, Mačkovec - Meso iz tiblice;
Academia, Marija Bistrica - Veal fillet with pumpkin and beetroot puree;
Bernarda, Varaždinske toplice - Young ox cheeks on the cream of potato and celery;
Podravska klet, Koprivnica - Goose liver;
Schön blick, Vetovo - Carp na rašljama
Zlatni lug, Donji Emovci - Podolac ispod peke

8. Your book is in Croatian and English. Where can people buy a copy?

The book will be sold in Hoću Knjigu and Menart bookstores and in certain Tisak and Hrvatska pošta locations. You can also order it on www.gastronaut.hr/knjige/, where you can also browse through the online editions in English and in Croatian. The QR code from the Restaurant Croatica stickers awarded to the 100 leading Croatian restaurants also takes you there.

ZAGREB, July 8, 2020 - Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman said on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting of the inner cabinet, that all options were on the table as regards government downsizing and that the goal was to have an efficient government serving the interests of state policy and citizens.

"All options are open... We want to have a government that will be efficient and serves the interests of the state and citizens," said the minister.

Asked if he would keep his post as Foreign Minister in the new government, Grlic Radman said that he "is serving his homeland" and that the prime minister-designate would be the one to decide.

Asked if he thought he was doing his job well, Grlic Radman said that he did.

Asked which department could go to ethnic minorities, he said that it would be negotiated.

"Minorities have traditionally always supported the government. It is good when minorities in Croatia can participate in the government, which is an achievement of the parliamentary democracy in Croatia. Croatia can serve as an example to many countries in the EU and beyond in that regard," he said.

As for the closing of the border with Serbia, he said that the national civil protection authority would decide about that, noting that Croatia had demonstrated seriousness, organisation and reliability and that protection of citizens' health was a priority.