March 25, 2021 - In a time and place where people are desperately searching for transport solutions to environmental problems, car traffic, crowds, and limited amounts of parking, especially during the tourist season at hotels and parks, the Croatian company IDDI decided to step forward and design the first Croatian electric scooter.

IDDI d.o.o. has announced their crowdfunding campaign on the Croatian platform CroInvest this week, where the goal is to raise the amount of HRK 250,000 for the completion of production and for R&D to make the world's first electric scooter from biodegradable materials.

IDDI, under the Rolla brand, has developed a product package consisting of the first Croatian electric scooter with a charger and a mobile application, designed and developed for the rental concept. The team, lead by Ivan Šimatović, consists of a group of young visionaries and engineers who want to prove to everybody that Croatia is ready to design and produce high-tech products and be part of the solution to the global problem of transport and climate change.

The Rolla charging station (Image: IDDI d.o.o.)

By offering high-performance scooters, advanced safety systems, and smart sensors that limit speed in populated areas at an affordable rental price, IDDI wants to change the negative public perception caused by the use of inappropriate and often insufficiently safe electric scooters. The Rolla scooter is also weather-resistant and has all-terrain big wheels, allowing it to adapt to almost any circumstance. 

Take a better look at the Rolla product package: 

According to the team, the Rolla project will also offer its users the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful outdoors and tourist attractions in Croatia, such as the Plitvice Lakes, in a more innovative and interesting way. The company has signed contracts with 4 renowned Croatian hotels for this tourist season, and the plan for the delivery of scooters is planned for mid-April.

Rolla isn't made just for the city, but for almost anywhere in Croatia. (Image: IDDI d.o.o.)

IDDI d.o.o. and the Rolla project have been already recognized by HBOR (the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development) through the credit line entrepreneurship of young people, women, and beginners under the guarantee of ESIF, and has close cooperation with Croatia’s National Tourist Board.

Learn more about the Croatian innovators behind the project:

You can read more about the project HERE. 

For more about everything made in Croatia, be sure to follow TCN’s dedicated page.

 ZAGREB, 25 March, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović on Thursday called on the State Judicial Council (DSV) to urgently repeat the public call for applications for the post of Supreme Court president, informing it that he would not nominate any of the three candidates who had applied following a previous public call.

The Office of the President said that it had sent the DSV a notification informing it that Milanović would not propose for the Supreme Court president any of the candidates who had applied, and that it therefore proposed that the public call be repeated as soon as possible as "under the Constitution, the President is obliged to care for the regular and normal functioning and stability of state authority and in that context wants to ensure conditions for better and more efficient work of the judicial authorities, as well as ensure the unobstructed operation of the State Election Commission."

The office stresses that the president's proposal "is not intended to influence in any way the DSV's constitutionally and legally defined powers" but that the president wants, "in the current chaotic situation, caused by changes to the Courts Act, to contribute to the best possible and most efficient functioning of the judicial authorities as well as enable the functioning of the State Election Commission after the expiry of the term of the current Supreme Court President."

The Supreme Court president also serves as the chair of the State Election Commission.

The Office of the President proposes that the DSV repeat the public call as soon as possible and that it last no longer than 15 days, considering that one public call was already advertised.

Applications following the DSV's previous public call were submitted by Supreme Court President Đuro Sessa, whose term expires in July, and attorneys Šime Savić and Lidija Horvat, with the latter having in the meantime withdrawn her application.

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

ZAGREB, 25 March, 2021 - The head of the Central State Office for Croats Abroad on Thursday told the parliament that after the "shameful" decision of the Subotica city's authorities to give a status of an official language to the Bunjevci vernacular, local Croats in Serbia had been receiving more and more threats.

In the wake of the discussions about that wrong and shameful decision by the Subotica City Council, which were also soon followed by the propaganda film "Dara iz Jasenovca",  more and more threats were made against ethnic Croats, notably ethnic Croat leaders in Serbia, Zvonko Milas told the Sabor, while presenting the 2019 report on the implementation of the strategy pertaining to Croat communities outside Croatia.

He also warned that the Subotica decision on the Bunjevci vernacular was against the Croatia-Serbia bilateral agreement on the respective ethnic minorities and that it also led to the further fragmentation of the ethnic Croat community in Vojvodina and Serbia.

Milas said that Croatia would do its utmost to make sure that Slovenia can grant a status of ethnic minority to local Croats.

The community has more than 50,000 members, Milas said adding that Slovenia does not recognise any ethnic rights of those Croats.

For more about the Croatian Diaspora follow TCN's dedicated page.

March 25, 2021 - Both the Croatian Ministry of Tourism and Sports and Croatian tourist boards recognised the development of health tourism as a high priority for Croatia.

To discuss the development of health tourism in Croatia, a branch that is becoming one of the more important Croatian tourist products, Croatian Tourism and Sports minister Nikolina Brnjac met with Kvarner Tourist Board director Irena Peršić Živadinov, Kvarner Health Tourism cluster president Vladimir Možetič, and Zagreb Tourist Board director Martina Bienenfeld. As life expectancy and healthy lifestyle trends increase, the value of health tourism grows. The novel coronavirus only made that growth even more rapid.

"Over 80,000 tourists in 2020 visited Kvarner (well-known for Lošinj Island and its hospital for respiratory issues) for health services. Today, many people are recovering from the consequences of the novel coronavirus there," said the Kvarner Tourist Board director Živadinov.  

"We have all the advantages for further development of health tourism: a good reputation of health services, qualified staff, natural richness of thermal sources, good climate, and long tradition of tourism," said minister Brnjac. Her goal is to pull Croatia out of the perception of a country only good for the summer season.

Croatia offers health services in wellness and medicine tourism. Health tourism is most associated with the regions of Kvarner, Istria, northern Croatia, and Zagreb, but the goal is to include other regions that have the potential for health tourism and to achieve the goals of a strategy that needs to be accomplished by 2030.

Martina Bienenfeld said that the Zagreb Tourist Board is working on the City's recognition as the centre of medical excellence. She pointed out good traffic connections, a mixture of the Mediterranean and mid-Europe climate, as well as good prices of health services as great advantages of Croatia's capital to the international clientele.

The Health Care Bill and Services in Tourism Bill now allow hospitality and health tourism services in hospitals and medical centres. These legal changes are also significant in attracting further investments in the field.

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

ZAGREB, 25 March, 2021 - In the last 24 hours, Croatia has performed 8,396 tests for coronavirus and 1,673 of them, or 20%, have returned positive, the national COVID-19 crisis management team reported on Thursday.

Currently, there are 8,407 active cases in the country, and of them, 1,071  patients are receiving hospital treatment, including100 placed on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, the death toll related to COVID-19 has increased by 10 to 5,838.

Since the outbreak of this infectious disease in late February last year, over 1.5 million tests have been performed, and 262,309 people have turned out to be positive. Of them, 248,064 have recovered, including 856 in the last 24 hours.

For more about COVID-19 in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

March the 25th, 2021 - Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic has spoken out about the new measures set to be introduced as the current ones are due to expire at the end of this month. As we look towards the tourist season, it seems that negative antigen test results will be enough to enter the country.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the current anti-epidemic measures are set to expire at the end of the month. ''At the beginning of April, we will adopt new measures,'' said Minister Davor Bozinovic at today's press conference of the National Civil Protection Headquarters. It all depends on us as to whether it will be just an extension, whether there will be some more restrictive solutions introduced or whether we'll be more liberal,'' Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic stressed.

Bozinovic confirmed that those who violate the measures will no longer be entitled to financial aid from the state.

"It's important to look at whether someone is violating the measures and whether or not they're registered. It doesn't matter if they only get a warning, which is also a form of sanction, or a misdemeanor warrant has been issued, the National Civil Protection Headquarters will send out a list of all these legal entities and they will no longer be entitled to any support grants," Minister Davor Bozinovic warned.

As part of the preparations for the upcoming tourist season, he said that tourists who have been vaccinated, who have overcome the disease (and can prove it with a doctor's certificate of recovery) or have a negative antigen test result will be able to enter the Republic of Croatia.

He also assessed that the regional approach to tightening the current measures is justified due to the preparations for the tourist season because "the EU will assess the incidence in our counties and make decisions for citizens who plan to travel there."

For more current information on coronavirus specific to Croatia, bookmark this page.

March the 25th, 2021 - The new CroAsia Institute is set to strengthen and intensify relations between the Republic of Croatia and the vast continent of Asia across numerous fields.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, a brand new interdisciplinary project launched with the aim of strengthening cooperation with Asia is the newly opened CroAsia institute, located right here in the Croatian capital of Zagreb.

As the first such institution of scientific-educational and business character here in Croatia, the systematic and long-term connection of Croatia and Southeast Europe with China and Asia was set as a primary programme task, and one of significance. The CroAsia Institute was started up by the Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM), which is already very well known for its cooperation with prestigious academic institutions over in Asia.

The new CroAsia Institute, along with the dean of ZSEM, Mato Njavro, will be led by Zvonimir Stopic and Ivica Bakota, who haven't only received their doctorates in the fields of economics, finance, international relations, history and politics related to Asia, China, Croatia and the immediate region, but they already have a lot of valuable practical experience under their belts. Behind them lies more than a decade of impressive and uninterrupted experience of active work in various Asian countries, both through business collaborations and research projects, as well as as lecturers.

"The CroAsia Institute will strive to provide Croatia with a fresh, new, reasonable and as objective as possible view of Asia and China," said Mato Njavro when discussing the move.

The partners of the ZSEM Institute are the China-CEE Institute, the Beijing Capital Normal University and the Beijing University of Foreign Languages, as well as a group of experts with international diplomatic and business experience who will participate in the work of the CroAsia Institute.

In addition to former NATO Assistant Secretary General and ex president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, other involved individuals include Sinisa Krajnovic, Executive Vice President and Head of Digital Services in the NE Asia Market Area for Ericsson, Chor Pharn Lee, Chief Strategy Advisor, Centre for Strategic Futures at the Office of the Prime Minister of Singapore, digital marketing expert Dejan Kutnjak and head of supervision and control for Asia at UBS, Mirko Jurisic.

For more, follow our business section. For current coronavirus information specific to Croatia about travel, border rules, testing centres, bookmark this page.

March the 25th, 2021 - The EU digital green certificate proposal has piqued the interest of most people, be that for good or bad reasons, but the idea which has conveniently made sure the controversial ''covid passport'' term isn't in its name still has a lot of question marks above its head.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the EU green digital certificate won't solve all of the now highly specific problems that are set to arise around the freedom of travel and protection against the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but it will provide a model that will ensure the mobility of EU citizens and eliminate the current discrimination which goes against EU rules. 

The above was the main conclusion drawn from the online conference "Digital Certificates and the COVID-19 virus" which was organised by the Office of the European Parliament in Croatia back at the end of last week.

Croatian MEP Valter Flego pointed out that last year showed us the chaos that can quite easily arise and this year we all need to try our best to avoid it happening again at all costs.

"It's obvious that this Easter is also going to be a failure in terms of any sort of tourist season, and it's certain that the opening up of the country will not take place even during the pre-season. We should already be engulfed in some serious preparations for the upcoming season, everything should be ready for the pre-season, including the hiring of seasonal workers.

Tourist staff would now be at various fairs and finishing off everything for this season and starting preparations for the next one. But there's been none of that. Last week, the European Commission (EC) adopted a proposal for the introduction of the EU digital green certificate, but the fact is that due to bureaucratic and technical reasons, the move will only come to life in two to three months from now,'' Flego warned.

He explained the importance of the EU digital green certificate through one simple example - if a family of four now wants to go from Germany on holiday to Croatia and return home, then they need to set aside 600 euros for testing, which is ridiculous and enough to put anyone off bothering going anywhere at all.

Analyses show, according to Flego, that the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic will be 10-12 times longer and more expensive than the situation following the 2009 economic crisis was.

"If coronavirus just disappeared right now at this moment, the question is how successful our recovery of the economy, and especially tourism, would be this year. Some people in Croatia say that this year we will be at 60 percent of the turnover of 2019. Personally, I'm not convinced of that and I really don't know what such estimates are based on,'' concluded Flego.

MEP Tomislav Sokol emphasised that this model of the EU digital green certificate, although compromises must still be reached and there will still be harmonisation to come in the Council and the Parliament, is certainly a great achievement in many fields. It will end discrimination against EU citizens with regard to which member states they come from and simplify and reduce the cost of their travel.

"The EC has given member states the right to decide on the details, from how and which tests they will accept, to the fact that each country can decide which vaccine to recognise as being valid - including those which aren't registered in the EU, such as the Russian and Chinese vaccines.

However, it's already a great achievement in itself that the certificates will be bilingual and machine-readable, which means that there will be no procedures and costs for translating and establishing their authenticity,'' said Sokol.

He also pointed out that it is important that there will be no first or second class citizens and that there will be no restrictions on movement for any EU citizens. Sokol also referred to the issue that many EU member states are already looking at, or even seriously considering, using both Russian and Chinese vaccines, which haven't been approved by the EU itself.

"The EC regulation on digital certificates states that each country can decide whether and under what conditions to accept those certificates and vaccines that have not received EU approval. In this particular case, this means that Croatia can accept certificates for, for example, Hungarian residents/citizens who have been vaccinated with the Russian or Chinese vaccine,'' explained Sokol.

What about those who don’t want to be vaccinated?

Professor Iris Goldner Lang from the Faculty of Law in Zagreb pointed out that so far, we've had to get used to researching every day on how to enter and return from countries, because there were, and still are, vastly different measures which are changing almost daily. This new EU model solves all this through a "green certificate".

"This sort of digital confirmation will take some time yet because today we have a situation where relatively few citizens have been vaccinated. In some cases, people refuse to be vaccinated for whatever reason, but more importantly, there are a large number of countries where vaccine distribution is still in its infancy.

From the perception of the EU legal system, the EU digital green certificate would be unacceptable at this point as it would lead to discrimination because very few people are currently vaccinated, for one reason or another. That's why it's still going to take some time for it to come to life,'' said Goldner Lang. She added that even after vaccination is at a high level, there will be people who aren't allowed or who don't want to be vaccinated, and the way in which they can travel will have to be regulated.

The legal expert recalled that there have been certain vaccination rules and obligations in the world for many years to enter some countries - mostly African countries that insist on vaccination against, for example, yellow fever and some other infectious diseases.

For more on travel, borders rules, testing centres and other information on coronavirus specific to Croatia, bookmark this page.