August the 4th, 2021 - Osijek and most of Eastern Croatia is continuously (and wrongly) overlooked, but despite that, it seems that a brand new Osijek public transport system worth a massive 58 million kuna is on the cards.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the City of Osijek could soon get one of the most modern public transport systems in all of the Republic of Croatia, which would be based on the modernisation and expansion of the tram network.

Namely, Osijek's City Passenger Transport signed a contract on Friday for the carrying out of various electrical and construction works with the companies Koncar-Inzenjering za energetiku i transport (Koncar-Engineering for energy and transport) and Colas Rail Hrvatska (Croatia).

According to the office of Osijek Mayor Ivan Radic, the works on the brand new Osijek public transport system are worth almost 58 million kuna, and they will renew the 9.5-kilometre tram network, the underground cable network, two existing stations, and they'll also build a new one.

Mayor Radic explained that these works are a precondition for the realisation of a mega project of the modernisation of public city transport worth 267 million kuna, of which 200 million kuna comes from European Union (EU) funds, and the rest is provided by the City of Osijek and the Croatian Government itself.

"The realisation of this, the largest project of the modernisation of public transport in Croatia, was agreed back in 2017 at a Government session held here in Osijek. As we know, in 2019, 12 new buses were purchased, 13 more modern buses are on their way to us, and now we're creating the preconditions to modernise our tram network as well. By the end of the year, we'll know who the contractor for the new depot will be, and after that, we're going to procure new, modern low-floor trams,'' said Radic, emphasising that the goal in the next three years is for the new Osijek public transport system to be the most modern in all of Croatia.

Minister Natasa Tramisak emphasised that 200 million kuna is coming from the Competitiveness and Cohesion Operational Programme 2014-2020, through the cooperation of the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure. She added that the City of Osijek can count on European Union money in the further realisation of this praiseworthy but huge project.

"Tram traffic is recognised as one of the greener forms of transport and fits into the green policies of the European Commission (EC). Following this, we can expect the continuation of the modernisation of the existing infrastructure as well as the expansion of it, and at the same time the procurement of new vehicles,'' said Minister Tramisak.

Mario Sapina, the director of GPP Osijek, confirmed that these works on the new Osijek public transport system are an introduction to the next phase of the project of the modernisation of tram infrastructure in the City of Osijek, ie the procurement of brand new, ultra-modern low-floor trams.

Although rail and tram transport is the most environmentally and economically efficient model of transport in urban areas and beyond, the fact is that there are only two cities in Croatia where trams operate, with Zagreb and the famous blue ZET trams being the most obvious.

The introduction of trams, which is one of the few complex transport systems which can be fully produced right here in Croatia by Koncar, has been considered for decades in other Croatian cities, but for now only Zagreb and Osijek have this mode of transport.

About fifteen or so years ago, Zagreb had a large project to modernise its entire city tram system, and the same is now expected in Osijek. Traffic expert Zeljko Marusic believes that apart from these two cities in Croatia, there's unfortunately little to no space for another tram network to be introduced.

“Trams have their limits. They are, above all, applicable only in lowland areas, and not in hilly areas such as in Split and Rijeka. On the other hand, it isn't cost effective for smaller cities because there must still be some guarantee of a certain volume of passengers. Because of all this, I think that in other smaller cities, a much better quality environmental transport solution would be electric, hydrogen or diesel-electric hybrid buses,'' explained Marusic.

He added that he doesn't see any special purpose in expanding the tram network in the City of Zagreb either.

For more, follow our lifestyle section.

August the 4th, 2021 - Last minute Croatian holiday prices on the Adriatic coast are going wild as more and more guests arrive and attempt to seek out accommodation. Nobody could have possibly predicted this scenario at the beginning of the year, but could it be that we're finally closing the door on the global pandemic?

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, many predictions were made about summer 2021 for Croatia, and some were a little less negative about it than others, but the optimists who claimed that this summer would end being just a little worse than the summer of record 2019 were few and far between, reports Slobodna Dalmacija.

''I looked at the statistics yesterday and I couldn't believe my eyes. I compared them to those from the same period back in 2019 and concluded that there are only 12 percent fewer guests in Makarska today than there were back during that prosperous pre-pandemic year. In Makarska we have 43 percent higher tourist results than we did during the same period last year!'' stated Tonci Lalic from the Tourist Board of the City of Makarska, adding that the current issue of guests struggling to find places to stay is very real.

''In the age of online reservations, our guests, just like before, physically come to the tourist boards and travel agencies and look for accommodation. Who could have known they'd start doing that given the fact that it has been so long since people did it that way. They come here begging to be helped and they just agree to everything. They'd also spend the night in some accommodation unit somewhere below the hill, just to have it dealt with. We're witnessing a huge influx of tourists,'' explained Lalic as the last minute Croatian holiday phenomenon continues.

In Split, the situation is such that guests agree to rent basement space and ancillary facilities, and the owners suddenly evict tenants from their apartments, aware that, due to a poor assessment of the season that surprised everyone, they should have received tourists and not played it "safely" with longterm tenants. The moment one reservation is cancelled, another is booked, but it also comes with a thirty percent higher price tag.

The catch is that some of the people of Split gave up renting their accommodation units out to tourists last year entirely, so now there's a lack of apartments. The situation is similar to the one when "Ultra" took place in Split in the first few years, and there weren't enough tourist beds available. That's why those hurt by the pandemic and hoping to make some quick and effortless cash are looking to seize the moment and charge prices which go beyond any logic.

For more, follow our travel section.

ZAGREB, 3 Aug, 2021 - AEPO-ARTIS, a non-profit organisation that represents over 650 performing artists, has sent a letter to the Croatian culture minister criticising Croatia for being late with the adoption of new copyright legislation and missing a deadline for the implementation of two EU directives, the Croatian Musicians Union said on Tuesday.

The organisation said that the implementation of the Copyright Directive and the Directive on online transmissions and retransmissions was being delayed because Croatia was late with the adoption of the new Copyright and Related Rights Act.

The letter, signed by AEPO-ARTIS secretary general Ioan Kaes, says that the COVID-19 pandemic has widened the gap between the growth of profit by online giants and individual artists because the latter do not participate in the fair distribution of this turnover.

The situation is particularly dramatic because in the new business circumstances the turnover of online platforms has become a dominant source of income for the music industry. For over a year and a half, performing artists have been denied their basic source of income - live performances, while at the same time the use and turnover of their recordings increased and performers could not enjoy their rights equally with others. Although their works still reach wide online audiences, artists receive small or no remuneration for them, according to the letter.

The institute of performers' inalienable right to remuneration is not incorporated into the proposal for the new Copyright and Related Rights Act, and under the proposal, record companies would be given an additional three years to adjust their business. This would allow Croatian record companies to continue their unfair and unethical practice of blackmailing performing artists and not paying them for the performances that have been used by online services for years, the letter said.

AEPO-ARTIS concluded by saying that introducing the inalienable right to remuneration, which artists would be able to exercise through their collective management organisations, is the best, if not the only, solution that guarantees that artists receive appropriate and proportionate remuneration for their work.

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

ZAGREB, 3 Aug, 2021 - The main Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) rose on Tuesday for the second consecutive trading day, with the Crobex increasing by 0.21% to 1,953 points and the Crobex10 by 0.38% to 1,205 points.

Turnover at the close of the trading session was HRK 4.26 million, roughly half as much as on Monday, and none of the stocks passed the turnover mark of one million kuna.

The highest turnover, of HRK 801,000, was generated by the stock of the Valamar Riviera hotel company. It closed at HRK 30 per share, up 1.69% over Monday.

A total of 37 stocks traded today, with 12 of them registering price increases, 12 recording price decreases and 13 stagnating in price.

(€1 = HRK 7.498284)

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

August 3, 2021 - Airline destination Dubrovnik isn't recording the record tourism numbers as the rest of Croatia. And there is one big reason why. 

While many Croatian destinations are recording tourist figures significantly closer to those from 2019, southern Croatia is still lagging behind. Thus, Dubrovnik realized only 50 percent of tourist arrivals in July compared to the record 2019, reports Index.hr. 

"According to the eVisitor tourist check-in and check-out system, there were 115,323 arrivals, and 422,679 overnight stays in Dubrovnik in July 2021, i.e., 152 percent more arrivals and 131 percent more overnight stays than in the same period last year. At the same time, foreign tourists realized 107,729 arrivals and 396,215 overnight stays, while domestic tourists realized 7,594 arrivals and 26,464 overnight stays. Compared to the record 2019, 50 percent of tourist traffic in arrivals and 53 percent of tourist traffic in overnight stays were realized in July," the Dubrovnik Tourist Board announced.

Such figures in the south are not really surprising. During the COVID-19 crisis, many guests decide to travel with their vehicles for safety. Dubrovnik is the southernmost destination that is not connected well by car, and it is necessary to pass the corridor through Neum. The Adriatic pearl thus remains an air destination. 

According to the Dubrovnik Tourist Board, most guests who stayed in Dubrovnik during July were from the USA, France, Germany, Croatia, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Ukraine, and Austria. It is also worth mentioning that direct lines from the USA to Dubrovnik were introduced at the beginning of July, which probably influenced the guests from the USA to take first place on the list of those who visit Dubrovnik the most.

According to the Dubrovnik Tourist Board data, the current tourist turnover is at 72 percent concerning the same period of the record 2019, which best describes the tourist situation in Dubrovnik. Namely, the beginning of July did not look particularly promising. Still, the situation improved sharply after the planes started flying from the USA and the opening of the British market, which is extremely important for southern Croatia. Namely, the British are Dubrovnik's most loyal guests.

But when looking at the situation in the first seven months of this year, it doesn’t look particularly satisfying. In the first seven months of 2021, Dubrovnik-Neretva County realized only 31 percent of arrivals and 43 percent of overnight stays compared to the same period in 2019. Such results are conditioned by the poor tourist performance of Dubrovnik, which achieved 23 percent of arrivals and 27 percent of overnight stays compared to 2019, but also the surrounding area, which predominantly affects the tourist results of the county. The President of the Dubrovnik County Chamber, Nikolina Trojić, believes that the reason for these figures lies in guests' structure and the destination's character.

"Dubrovnik and its surroundings are a dominant airline destination, and we know that this market segment is more difficult to recover. The main market for the Dubrovnik area for years was the United Kingdom, which participated with 30 percent in overnight stays. It will be significant in improving tourist numbers, but it is not easy to make up for the absence of the British with any other market overnight. Also in the top ten destinations are three overseas, which were also more or less absent due to the pandemic," Trojic explains.

However, this year's results indicate a slightly better season than last year, where the number of arrivals in Dubrovnik in the first seven months of 2021 was higher by 65 percent and the number of overnight stays by 78 percent.

"The basic question is how long it will last. It has been known that September has been the month with the best occupancy and financial results in Dubrovnik for years. However, there is still concern whether the fourth wave of the pandemic will stop such good bookings and announcements. If that happens, Dubrovnik will have to seek state support again to preserve employment, to preserve the core of the economy," Trojic says.

The owner of a travel agency and an occasional transport company, Vesna Lukić, believes that the decline also occurred due to the absence of cruiser arrivals, at least in the number in which it was common.

"Whether we consider cruisers desirable or not, it is obvious how much they had an impact on the percentage of visitors to Dubrovnik. Even ships coming to Dubrovnik do not sail at full capacity again, so with the decline in arrivals and reduced passenger capacity, bubble groups have played a role," says Lukic, who notes that the number of flights to Dubrovnik is also negligible compared to other airports in Croatia.

"The fact that a direct flight connects Dubrovnik with the USA is great for the promotion of the city, but unfortunately, one swallow does not make spring, so even those few flights do not make a season," Lukić believes.

He also notes that Minister Brnjac stated that we could not compete with Malta because they are primarily an air destination, and we are a car destination with which she disagrees. He says the issue is not well resolved either.

"In the last few days, we have witnessed abnormal crowds at the border crossings that surround us, so this statement is even more incredible. Guests who wait for hours in traffic at extremely high temperatures will certainly not take with them from vacation what we would like but will return indignant and with recommendations not to go to Dubrovnik," Lukić notes.

As he says, the number of entities that depend on tourism in Dubrovnik-Neretva County is huge; the number of visitors is not enough for everyone to find 'their place under the sun,' and without the expected (and desired) income another difficult winter is coming. Therefore, her predictions are not at all optimistic.

"We are a destination that is still guided by the policy that we are beautiful, and that is why our guests come, and that still works on the principle of tourism as we had in the early '80s, so this scenario is expected," Lukić said and believes that southern Croatia needs strong changes in terms of tourism and radical changes. Otherwise, it could easily happen that the 2022 season will not be much better.

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

ZAGREB, 3 Aug (Hina) - Total household loans in Croatia reached HRK 138.9 billion at the end of June 2021, increasing by HRK 4.2 billion from June 2020, according to the data provided by the Croatian National Bank (HNB).

The annual nominal household loan growth rate was 3.2%, picking up from 2.7% in May 2021, Raiffeisen Bank (RBA) said in its analysis of the central bank's data.

The share of kuna-denominated loans in total loans was 55%, the same as the month before.

Household credit claims increased by 1.9% or HRK 2.7 billion since the start of the year.

The annual household loan growth rate increased from 3.5% to 4%, with the growth of housing loans picking up from 9.7% to 10.1%. 

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

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

ZAGREB, 3 Aug, 2021 - Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević announced on Tuesday that next Monday, applications would be invited for the appointment of members of school boards, with around 400 members to be selected, plus 200 who are representatives of local government units. 

Speaking at a news conference, Tomašević said that under the new model, of the three school board members who are appointed as representatives of schools' founder, namely the City of Zagreb, one would be chosen from among representatives of local government bodies and two would be selected in an open competition.

Around 400 school board members will be selected in an open competition, around 200 will be nominated by heads of city district councils.

The boards of primary and secondary schools whose founders are local government units each have seven members, of whom three have so far been appointed exclusively by a decision by the mayor.

The Večernji List daily recently reported that the appointment of some of the school board members in an open competition would be introduced by Zagreb and Split, whose mayors, Tomašević and Ivica Puljak respectively, have said the new model is aimed at depoliticising educational institutions.

Tomašević today also noted that fees for members of school boards as well as for members of the management boards of city-owned kindergartens and cultural institutions would be cut. 

Amendment of criteria on lease of city premises

Speaking of waste management in Zagreb, Tomašević said at today's news conference that the situation in Zagreb was critical regarding the disposal of bio-waste and bulky waste.

A new public procurement procedure has been launched for the disposal of bio-waste while the public procurement procedure for the disposal of bulky waste is under way, he said.

The mayor of Zagreb also announced changes to criteria for the lease of city-owned premises, noting that by raising prices of lease, which are currently very low, the city's revenue could be increased.

"I do not see any logic in leasing commercial businesses that earn millions in revenue spaces of several hundred square metres at a price of several thousand kuna," he said.

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

ZAGREB, 3 Aug, 2021 - Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and six other NGOs on Tuesday criticised the new Croatian border monitoring mechanism, expressing concern about the body's independence and efficiency.

Recent media reports and official statements about the newly established border monitoring mechanism raise serious concerns, especially over the body's mandate, efficiency and independence, Amnesty International, Are You Syrious, the Centre for Peace Studies, the Danish Refugee Council, Human Rights Watch, the International Rescue Committee, Refugee Rights Europe and Save the Children said in a joint press release.

The Croatian government announced that the negotiations on the mechanism have concluded, but has not publicly disclosed further details about its structure or functioning, according to the press release.

The independent mechanism should monitor the treatment of illegal migrants by police officers, following several reports by NGOs of violations of migrants' rights at the border, which the Croatian government denies. The establishment of the mechanism was earlier proposed by the European Commission.

"Any border monitoring mechanism should be independent in law and practice and have sufficient resources and a robust mandate to monitor border-related operations anywhere on the territory of a state," the NGOs said.

The source of contention is the fact that according to the NGOs, the mechanism's mandate would be limited to police stations near the border and border crossings, while most contentious actions of the Croatian authorities take place further away from them, the press release says.

The objection also referred to the involvement of other institutions and organisations.

"To ensure that the mechanism is credible and effective, it needs to involve independent institutions or organisations that have monitoring experience – such as civil society organisations, United Nations agencies, and national human rights institutions – that are not financially dependent on the government;" they said, adding that any mechanisms that do not meet such standards could undermine the European Commission's efforts to end violence on the Union's external borders.

"The Commission should actively review and assess the mechanism to ensure that Croatian authorities put in place a system that can credibly monitor compliance with EU law in border operations and should provide political and financial support only to a system that meets the above standards," the NGOs said.

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