ZAGREB, 3 Jan 2022 - The membership of the euro area will provide Croatia with better protection in periods of economic crisis, the National Bank (HNB) Governor, Boris Vujčić, told the national broadcaster's (HRT) evening news program on Sunday.

The euro changeover is expected in one year's time, and Governor Vujčić said that a lot of logistical preparations lay ahead.

"We hope that we will enter the euro area in a year's time, and 2022 is the year of preparations," said Vujčić.

The final decision on the date will be known this summer, however, we are making preparations to be ready for the euro changeover on 1 January 2023, he said adding that the central bank, commercial lenders, and the enterprise sector are now due to make preparations for the introduction of the euro.

Dual display of prices

As of this summer, all should be ready to express prices both in the national currency and the euro, said the governor.

He also noted that the country should be ready to provide the market with the euro banknotes and coins upon the transition to that currency.

Asked about the pros and cons of the admission to the euro area, Vujčić said that Croatia would be provided with better protection in the cases of crisis.

The euro adoption will remove the currency exchange risks, and in this segment, Croatia will have the biggest advantages, since its economy is more euroized than any other euro area candidate so far, he explained.

A majority of time savings deposits are tied to the euro, he said adding that for instance, 10% depreciation of the kuna in terms of its exchange rate versus the euro would increase the debt of all the sectors by HRK 50 billion. This is a huge risk that can cause a recession, and our entry into the euro area will remove that risk, he said.

He added that there are currently 36 billion kunas in cash in circulation, and in the next 12 months the money should be either deposited with banks or spent.

The Croatian kuna joined ERM (Exchange Rate Mechanism) II on 10 July 2020 and observes a central rate of 7.53450 to the euro with a standard fluctuation band of ±15%.

Any aspirant for the euro area membership must participate in the mechanism without severe tensions and without devaluing its central rate against the euro for at least two years before it can qualify to adopt the euro. Being part of the Exchange Rate Mechanism is intended to help non-euro-area countries prepare themselves for becoming part of the euro area. It is an important milestone towards adopting the euro.

For more, check out our politics section.

January 3, 2022 - Croatia's best boxer Filip Hrgović is hard at work preparing for new challenges, and allegedly everything has been agreed upon for his next fight. So could it be Filip Hrgović against Luis Ortiz?

Namely, Hrgović's promoters, the Sauerland brothers, announced that Luis Ortiz's manager accepted the fight against the Croatian boxer, reports Gol.hr. 

Hrgovic's opponent in the "final eliminator", i.e., the qualifying fight for the chance to become a world champion, should be 42-year-old Cuban Luis Ortiz.

It would be Filip Hrgović's biggest professional boxing fight. Luis Ortiz has been at the top of international boxing for years. Today, at the age of 42, he is the 10th heavyweight globally. He has 33 wins and only two defeats in his career.

He knocked out Martin on Saturday

On Saturday, Ortiz defeated Charles Martin, one of Hrgović's many undefeated opponents, by technical knockout in the sixth round and improved his professional ratio to 33-2-2 (28 knockouts). The only two defeats were against Anthony Joshua in the title fight. If he wants a third chance, he will have to beat Hrgović first, who would be the most formidable opponent in his career so far (14-0), reports Index.hr.

"Hrgović against Ortiz in the final eliminator. Who wins?" Brothers Kalle and Nisse Sauerland wrote on Twitter, then tweeted on Instagram, where they tagged Ortiz's promoter Jay Jimenez and thanked him for accepting the fight.

A belt fight eliminator or final eliminator?

ESPN writes that Ortiz's next opponent could be Andy Ruiz, Joseph Parker, or Joe Joyce, which the Sauerland brothers followed with a contradictory comment: "He has to fight Hrgović if he wants the final eliminator." Therefore, it is not clear whether the winner of this fight would immediately get a chance for the IBF belt or only then go to the final qualifiers.

Hrgović was tipped for many great fights last year, mostly against Martin but also against Yoka, Parker, Zhang. He fought only against unknowns like Kartozija, Radonjić, and Ahmatović, and returnee Booker in the last two years. Despite routine victories, he dropped to 37th place in the world in the BoxRes rankings, even though he was once close to the top ten.

Hrgović has been boxing professionally for four years and is currently undefeated. 

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

January 3, 2022 - A basketball giant as an opponent, Hajduk Coach Valdas Dambrauskas as a special guest, and 1500 spectators at Gripe could not help KK Split on Sunday, currently the worst team in the league. However, hopes were high for a sensation in the 14th round game of the ABA League. 

Hajduk Split coach Valdas Dambrauskas was welcomed by KK Split director Edo Blažević who handed him a Jugoplastika Toni Kukoč jersey before tip-off.

Understandably apart from the VIP guest, the fans were especially looking for support from the newly signed American Guard Shannon Shorter. The 32-year-old Texan recently joined KK Split as his 21st club in his 11th season as a professional athlete. The 193cm Combo Guard made a big difference to KK Split at both ends of the floor.

However, even Shorter's 24 points, including several sensational crunch-time baskets, did not stop Split from being defeated by Belgrade (Crvena Zvezda) 66:62 (16:9, 18:18, 15:15, 17:20). 

The guests had entered the game much more aggressively and quickly secured a seven-point lead, but the "Yellows" were persistent; they came back repeatedly to keep the game close. The spectators created a great atmosphere at Gripe and witnessed an uncertain game outcome until the very end.  

"We played an excellent game, a gentlemen's game.  Unfortunately, we did not have enough strength and quality to keep the points, but this game can guide how we can and should play. If we can play like this against Zvezda, then there will be no problems in the continuation of the season," said Split Head Coach Srdjan Subotic when analyzing the game. Regarding his new player, he added: "I don't like to judge good or bad based on one or two games, but if he is close to this level, we have certainly got the right player we need."

Guest coach Dejan Radonjić was able to celebrate the 13th victory of the season and continues to lead the league. Ten of his twelve players scored; however, 11 points from Ivanović and 10 from White stood out for the only two who reached double figures.

Referees: Sašo Petek, Bojan Kruljac, Dragan Porobić 

Box score: https://www.aba-liga.com/match/92/21/1/Overview/q1/1/home/split-crvena-zvezda-mts/ 

All photos by Burak Canboy

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

January 3, 2022 - HGSS members performed a complex and challenging rescue operation on Sunday night. After almost 13 hours, they pulled out an injured mountaineer, who slipped with his Alaskan Malamute North to a depth of 150 meters on Vaganski Vrh.

Fortunately, two friends were with the injured mountaineer, who immediately called for help and were in contact with the rescuers at all times, report 24 Sata. 

The head of the HGSS Gospić, Josip Brozičević, states that the mountaineers were experienced and had all the necessary equipment, but a combination of unfortunate circumstances led to this accident.

"The mountaineers climbed the Velebit hiking trail to Vaganski vrh. When descending, the dog was afraid to cross the icy surface. Its owner received it to pass it on. The moment he wanted to lower him to the ground, the dog began to slide on the icy ground. He was on a leash and tied to the owner, and as he slipped into the pit, he dragged his owner behind him," said Brozičević.

HGSS members received a report at 6:30 pm, and 27 rescuers from Gospić, Zadar, Split, and Istria reached the injured mountaineer and dog that had been in the pit for five hours. Unfortunately, the action on the inaccessible terrain, on the highest peak of Velebit, was hampered by snow and ice, and landslides and broken trees blocked the trails.

"The dog was curled up next to the owner in the pit the entire time; he warmed his owner with his body, thus preventing the mountaineer's significant hypothermia who suffered a severe fracture of the lower leg and ankle when he fell. In addition, he looked quite sober mentally and physically," stated Brozičević.

After rescuers pulled the victim and the dog out of the pit, the hypothermic mountaineer was first warmed, and his injured leg immobilized. His dog North, who passed without injuries, did not want to be separated from the owner for even a moment. Instead, he curled up on him while on a stretcher, while rescuers lowered him from the mountain on steep and icy terrain Transportation began at 0:20.

"When we started with the transport, we saw that it would not be possible to transport the victim and the dog together. Since the dog was unharmed, he was taken over by one of the rescuers, but even then, he was near the owner," said Brozičević.

After more than seven hours of transport, the injured mountaineer was taken to the ambulance, to the Gospić General Hospital, and then to the Zadar Hospital, where he underwent surgery.

HGSS members warn that hiking is dangerous in winter conditions, regardless of how experienced the mountaineer is and how well they prepare for the route. This accident has shown that only one wrong step is enough, after which there is no going back. Vaganski vrh is visited almost daily by mountaineers. The only exception is when the most severe winter conditions prevail on the mountain.

To read more about lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

January 3, 2022 - 50,000 tourists in Croatia welcomed 2022, and some hotel facilities saw 5.5x more guests than last year!

According to the Croatian National Tourist Board, of the total number of guests currently staying in Croatia, 30 thousand are foreign visitors. Most tourists were recorded in Istria and Kvarner, followed by Split-Dalmatia, Dubrovnik-Neretva, and Zadar counties, Jutarnji List.

Twenty-seven thousand guests were registered in hotels, which is a significant increase compared to January 2021, when only five thousand stayed in hotels on the same day.

However, the figures show that we are still behind in data from the beginning of 2020 (before the pandemic) when about 60,000 tourists stayed in Croatia for the New Year holidays.

When it comes to specific tourist destinations, Zagreb, Opatija, Dubrovnik, Poreč, and Split benefited the most from New Year's celebrations. Domestic tourists, followed by Germans, Slovenes, and Austrians, were the most numerous in these destinations.

It is also commendable that this New Year's holiday was welcomed by more foreign than domestic tourists, while last year the situation was reversed: out of a total of 15 thousand guests, 11 thousand were domestic guests, which shows that foreign markets are still traveling more this winter than during 2021.

As the Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Board director Joško Stella told Jutarnji List, December 2021 was significantly better than last year but still less than the pre-pandemic results of 2019, and this was seen on New Year's Eve.

"We are satisfied, we had significantly more NYE receptions in the cities than last year, and there were more hotels, so logically there were more guests.

Most of the guests are from the German market, but we also had visitors from the United States and the United Kingdom, although we can't talk about large numbers," Stella said.

New Year's data inspire hope that in 2022 the recovery of the tourism sector could continue, for which the Croatian Tourist Board predicted that the year could end at 90 percent of the pre-pandemic 2019. Accordingly, the CNTB announced new and intensive promotional campaigns and actions in this regard. In addition, it was decided that the umbrella marketing agency would open a branch in Kyiv as the Ukrainian market brought excellent results in 2021. 

This is supported by the financial data for the first nine months of 2021, according to which revenues from foreign tourists amounted to 8 billion and 268 million euros, which is a 90 percent increase over the same period, i.e., the first nine months of 2020, which is one of the worst tourist years so far.

Revenue that year was about 4.4 billion euros, or 3 billion and 929 million euros less.

However, most interesting is that in the pandemic year, Croatia managed to make the best financial result recorded so far in the main season.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, in the third quarter, i.e., in July, August, and September, the income of foreign tourists amounted to 6 billion and 775 million euros, which is a 100 percent increase compared to the same period in 2020, or 3 billion and 386 million euros more.

Compared to the pre-pandemic 2019, the growth was two percent, i.e., 148 million euros more in revenue, in the circumstances of the not very successful vaccination process. Croatia still lags behind other European countries.

However, the data should be taken with a grain of salt because it is likely that many of our competing tourist countries that have recorded more significant declines in traffic than Croatia over the past two years will try to take advantage of the 2022 season.

Namely, Greece and Turkey could offer significantly lower prices to the market.

For more, check out our dedicated travel section.

January the 3rd, 2022 - Mate Rimac is Croatia's shining star when it comes to entrepreneurship, having shown that anything is possible in Croatia, despite the many barriers to success in his field. He has even turned the eyes of the demanding automotive world to Croatia, who wouldn't have given this country as much as a second glance otherwise. Porsche is now firmly tied to the country through him.

The Livno-born businessman who is the head of the currently Sveta Nedelja-based Rimac Automobili, is now offering a very handsome 1000 euro amount to anyone who recommends a person they end up deciding to employ in another move in which he is giving back to people.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the entrepreneur is looking for new employees, and he is looking for candidates through recommendations. Anyone can recommend someone, and should they get lucky and get hired by the company, they'll have 1000 euros show up in their bank account. A nice surprise indeed for the one month of the year (January) in which everyone feels skint.

Anyone who refers to a candidate who is eventually hired by this enterprise will receive a 1000 euros cash - whether or not that person is employed by the Rimac Group or not.

“As we expand our project work for many global automotive companies, we're expanding at all levels. Anyone who nominates a candidate we hire in the end will be rewarded with 1000 euros (gross) - regardless of whether they're an employee of the Rimac Group or not,'' wrote Mate Rimac on his Facebook page.

Rimac is looking for experienced procurement and logistics experts who can take responsibility for challenging, large projects.

"Managing the requirements of such complex projects is not something for beginners, so please don't waste your and ours with recommendations for unskilled people," Rimac concluded in his Facebook post.

For more, check out our dedicated business section.

January the 3rd, 2022 - Simplified Croatian citizenship acquisition is possible for certain categories of people, and the deadline before which those more simple rules can be exercised has been extended due to the coronavirus pandemic and the difficulties imposed in accessing certain documents and services.

Croatian citizenship can be obtained in numerous different ways. While the country primarily bases its citizenship rules on Jus sanguinis, a principle of nationality law in which a child acquires the citizenship of their parent or parents, Jus soli, birthright citizenship, also applies in some cases. One can also naturalise after a certain amount of time living legally in the country, and one can obtain a passport if they're of special interest to Croatia.

In short, there are many routes to Croatian citizenship, and if you've read any of my earlier (many) articles on residence and citizenship, you'll know that there's really no need for me to go over it all again. Instead, I'll link them. If you want to become a Croatian citizen through marriage to someone who already is one, click here. If you want to naturalise after eight years of lawful uninterrupted residence, click here. If you think the Interior Ministry might think you're of special interest to the country, click here. If your parent or parents are Croatian citizens, or were so at the time of your birth, click here.

Now, to the point - simplified Croatian citizenship acquisition. How does one go about applying in this way? Firstly, you need to have been born after 1991, and one of your parents needs to have been a Croatian citizen at the time of your arrival on planet Earth, also known as your birth. Let's break it down into pieces which are more easy to digest, with thanks to gov.hr.

At its 131st session which was held back in December 2018, the Croatian Government adopted the Bill on Amendments to the Croatian Citizenship Act and referred it to the Croatian Parliament for adoption. The initiated amendments to the Croatian Citizenship Act have been in force since the 1st of January, 2020. Just a couple of months before the global pandemic struck, which is why the initial deadline within which citizenship could be applied for in this manner has been extended. Read on.

The most significant changes under the Act are as follows:

The new simplified Croatian citizenship acquisition rules enable the acquisition of Croatian citizenship by persons born abroad (based on ethnicity).

In this case, one of their parents needs to have been registered as a Croatian citizen at the time of their birth because the age limit for entry into the Croatian citizen register has been increased to include persons of up to 21 years of age, which gives them an opportunity to apply on their own for entry into the register of Croatian citizens if their parents failed to do that for them by the time they had reached the age of 18.

Under the same conditions, it is also now possible to acquire Croatian citizenship by origin for persons over 21 years of age (those born after the entry into force of the currently applicable Croatian Citizenship Act, ie after the 8th of October, 1991) if within two years from the entry into force of this Act, they submit a request for entry into the Croatian citizen register.

The liberalisation of the conditions for acquiring Croatian citizenship by naturalisation for emigrants and their descendants. So far, there has been a restriction to the third degree of kinship, which is no longer the case. At the same time, the obligations of possessing knowledge of Croatian language and Latin script, Croatian culture and social arrangements have been totally eliminated.

The simplification of the presentation of evidence for members of the Croatian people who don't have evidence of a personal declaration of their affiliation with the Croatian people, if this fact has been unequivocally established for their parents.

Simplified Croatian citizenship acquisition rules for those applying to naturalise, for minor children whose parents acquired Croatian citizenship on the basis of emigration from the Republic of Croatia or on the basis of affiliation with the Croatian people (until now, such a child had to live in the Republic of Croatia to acquire Croatian citizenship by naturalization, which is no longer the case).

A person who has acquired Croatian citizenship by naturalisation will now need to take a solemn oath, pledging their allegiance to Croatia, and such persons can also submit their application for Croatian citizenship through a competent diplomatic mission or consular office of the Republic of Croatia in their countries of residence/origin.

For more on Croatian citizenship, check out the links I provided earlier on in this article.

January the 3rd, 2022 - The former longtime Zagreb Mayor, Milan Bandic, passed away suddenly and prematurely in spring last year from what was then reported as a massive heart attack, leaving behind him a long political career, an array of allegations of corruption, as well as his wife, Vesna Bandic.

As Index writes, Vesna Bandic, the widow of the late Zagreb mayor and multiple USKOK suspect Milan Bandic, spoke to Jutarnji list about his premature death and what followed it. It should be noted that Milan Bandic passed away on February the 28th last year, and the circumstances surrounding his death are still not completely clear. A journalist from Jutarnji asked Vesna Bandic if she knew where her husband was the night when he passed away. She doesn't.

"God, if I only knew! He was at a dinner party, but I don't know who he was with or where he was. You know... there were various stories about it, including that he was with Natalija (a model). I have to say that I'm not jealous, I've never been jealous, I didn't mind. Wherever he was, well... that's where he was. Over last fifteen days or so before his death, I noticed that he was very, very unwell," she said.

It should also be noted that it was confirmed to Index back in March last year that the ambulance for Milan Bandic came to the building where Bandic's associate Natalija Prica lived at the time.

Vesna Bandic has also complained about various real estate problems.

"I can't come to an agreement with Milan's brother about the propery issues"

"My daughter and I inherited some property in Samobor, some in Herzegovina and some in the City of Zagreb. And now that my daughter and I have had something in Herzegovina handed down to us, Bandic's brother strongly opposes it, but since half of this apartment is his, we did offer it to him. We'd hoped to 'exchange Herzegovina' with him, and he'd give us half of this apartment in return,'' Vesna Bandic explained, adding that she just couldn't come to any sort of agreement or arrangement with the brother of her late husband.

She also claimed that half of the apartment in Zagreb was not fictitiously registered as belonging to his brother, adding that she'd always been on good terms with Milan Bandic's brother, and especially with his wife.

"What will I live on? Well, now the procedure is asking for seventeen million kuna back from the campaign, and if they manage to prove that they're entitled to it, they'll take the Samobor and Herzegovina properties from us. At least that's what is circulating, that it's possible that they'll take our property in Samobor and Herzegovina from us," Vesna Bandic added.

When asked by a journalist whether she will only end up with an apartment in Zagreb in the end, Vesna Bandic said that she would actually "be left with nothing".

"His pension, which I received, barely covers my utilities, which are four or five thousand kuna, and in winter 6000 kuna because the apartment is large and I have a pension of 6800 kuna. What will I live on? Sometimes I think: Milan, dear, all you did is leave me with problems... And you know those rumours about that there are millions hidden away somewhere, that there are bank accounts in Dubai, money with friends... Maybe that's all true, but he never told me about any of it it. Whenever I'd ask him where all this money is, he would tell me: ''At a friend's...'' concluded Vesna Bandic.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.