March the 3rd, 2021 - The former PPK Velebit Gospic industrial centre has has new life breathed into it in the economic sense thanks to two dedicated Croatian companies.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the former industrial complex of the former PPK Velebit Gospic, which is characterised by its large and imposing silos and warehouses, has been left empty and decaying for decades, while potential investors who do happen to have come and gone all gave up on starting any sort of production within the facility.

Today, that unfortunate picture is changing for the better and the production plant has started being used by two Croatian companies which deal with different activities, which have created new jobs in production with the aim of further expansion. These are Plastruktor and Komarna, and they have invested money and time to put the situation in the neglected PPK Velebit Gospic complex into some sort of order.

All the carpentry on the silo was changed, the premises were cleaned, the area around it was properly arranged and the storage areas were put back into operation after a very long time. The owners of the company Plastruktor, Josip and Monika Sincek from Varazdin, have been delving into entrepreneurial waters for about twenty years now. Their company currently employs twelve workers and by the end of the investment cycle, that number should increase to thirty employees. The company´s main business segment relates to the production of windshields and noise barriers, as well as the creation of mobile homes from recycled materials, for which the Sincek couple won a gold medal in the category, a special award from the fair organisers and the Grand Prix of the European Association of Innovators. Their first mobile home was recently delivered from Gospic to Petrinja, as a donation for a family left without accommodation following the devastating earthquake in December 2020.

In addition to this investment in the second part of the complex, along Bilajska street, an entrepreneur from Split, the owner of the company Komarna, Sandro Babic is investing in a plant for the production of tortillas, which should come to life in the period ahead of us. All works are proceeding according to the expected dynamics, and according to the owners, the first tortillas produced in the former PPK Velebit Gospic complex will soon be on Croatian store shelves.

The Mayor of Gospic, Karlo Starcevic, and the Deputy Mayor, Kristina Prsa, as well as their associates, all visited the plant, and the enterprise owners bringing it back to life expressed their joint satisfaction with the current cooperation with the mayor and the professional services undetaken by the Gospic and its local administration, which was made available to them at all times.

With the launch of these two projects, the former PPK Velebit Gospic complex will be operational again after a full thirty years, and if all plans are realised, the people of Gospic could soon get new catering and tourist facilities at the top of the silo, which will surely be an attraction.

This is an example of a very good practice of attracting investors, and in Gospic, according to Mayor Starcevic, new jobs will be created in production when both plants are fully operational and this will be the direction that Gospic will be heading in in the future, and as Starcevic points out, job creation in production is the only sustainable way of ensuring Croatian demographic renewal.

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March the 3rd, 2021 - Spontaneous Zagreb gatherings are set to have closer monitoring placed on them by the National Civil Protection Directorate as rules to try to limit numbers of people in any one place at any one time come in.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the current epidemiological measures in the City of Zagreb will remain in force until the end of March, as was announced on the official website for coronavirus in Croatia (koronavirus.hr), and, among other things, the control of spontaneous Zagreb gatherings in public will be tightened up once again.

At the proposal of the Civil Protection Directorate of the City of Zagreb, some more new epidemiological measures for the area of ​​the City of Zagreb are being introduced. The necessary epidemiological measures referred to in this Decision shall be determined until the 31st of March 2021.

The new epidemiological measures, which still include many of the old rules, are as follows:

- The mandatory use of face masks or medical/surgical masks in all enclosed spaces where public or economic activities are performed, as well as at events, cultural or other programmes, religious and at other social gatherings, if it isn´t possible to maintain a physical distance of at least two metres between people.

- At all social and public gatherings (events, performances, masses, rituals, sports competitions and other social and public Zagreb gatherings) it is obligatory to adhere to all epidemiological measures at all times, as it is with the instructions and recommendations of the Croatian Institute of Public Health.

- The current recommendation is to increase the number of vehicles (both trams and buses) providing public city transport to whatever extent is possible given the capacities of ZET.

- Intensified monitoring of Zagreb gatherings is set to begin.

- The organisers of social gatherings that are permitted and the owners of catering and hospitality facilities are obliged to control the implementation of all current epidemiological measures at these Zagreb gatherings, ie on the premises of catering and hospitality facilities.

- The enabling of the users of accommodation services which operate within the social welfare system (care homes etc.) to go to see their families for more than five days, with the obligation that they submit a negative test for SARS-CoV-2 and that additional precautions when returning to the service provider (the avoidance of contact with other service users for 14 days or something similar) are implemented.

- Users of accommodation services operating within the social welfare system will be allowed to leave such accommodation and go outside to the external spaces owned by the same service provider (such as out in the garden or on the terrace, etc.) with the obligatory wearing of face masks and full adherence to maintaining a physical distance of at least 1.5 metres from others.

- Visits to users of accommodation providers in the social welfare system are allowed only in/on the external premises of the service provider. The duration of such visits will be limited in time and organised according to a predetermined schedule. Both service users and their visitors are required to wear face masks or medical/surgical masks and maintain a physical distance of at least 1.5 metres at all times.

- Visits to the users of accommodation providers operating within the social welfare system are allowed indoors only when, for objective reasons, the visit cannot be organised outdoors (such as in the case of totally immobile service users). In such cases, the duration of the visit is limited in time and organised according to a predetermined schedule, with the requirement that visitors are required to use face masks or medical/surgical masks, as well as disposable PPE.

- Only users who have had COVID-19 within 90 days of the onset of the disease and service users for whom 14 days have passed since vaccination with the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine are allowed to go inside the premises of an accommodation provider within the social welfare system.

- The restriction of the operation of catering facilities that operate on/as part of the premises of the accommodation service provider in the social welfare system, and which do not have a separate entrance to the premises where the catering service is provided, exclusively for users and employees of the service provider.

- The obligation for tenants of accommodation providers within the social welfare system, who are performing activities that are not currently suspended, to organise their work in such a way as to determine the time when services are available only to users, with mandatory prior disinfection of the premises and all equipment.

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March 3, 2021 - Despite the announcements, Lufthansa has canceled all flights from Munich to Zagreb this summer. 

Croatian Aviation reports that just two weeks ago, Lufthansa announced plans to fly to several destinations in Croatia in the summer flight schedule, including two routes to Zagreb, from Frankfurt and Munich.

Lufthansa suspended the Frankfurt - Zagreb route in March 2020, after the pandemic outbreak, and has not operated on it for a year. Under the current flight schedule, the airline was to resume traffic on this route with the start of the summer flight schedule effective March 28. But that will no longer happen. 

Lufthansa suspended traffic on the Munich - Zagreb route on December 1, and because Croatia Airlines has not operated on it for a long time, Zagreb Airport has been without a direct line with the Bavarian capital for 3 months.

Many Lufthansa lines from Munich are currently suspended, as the airline has decided to keep its wide network of destinations mainly from the hub in Frankfurt. Thus, a larger number of lines are available from that German city to keep Frankfurt's functionality as a big "hub."

Croatia Airlines has not yet confirmed its summer flight schedule. Still, in the current reservation calendar, it is possible to buy tickets for a direct flight between Zagreb and Munich from the first day of the summer flight schedule (March 28, 2021). Flights are available daily, in the morning or evening, depending on the date of travel, throughout the summer, which is a significant reduction in capacity and number of flights, given that Croatia Airlines had two daily flights on this route in the summer of 2019. If Croatia Airlines stays with the current schedule, it will have no competition on the route to Munich this summer, which is certainly good news for the Croatian carrier.

From Sunday, May 2, Croatia Airlines plans to re-establish the Rijeka - Munich route with three flights a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday), and the Dubrovnik - Munich route with two flights a week (Friday, Sunday). The Split - Munich line has been in operation since May 2020 and will continue to operate in the upcoming summer season.

Lufthansa also plans to connect Munich and Frankfurt with Croatia's coastal airports from the beginning of the summer flight schedule, which should be finalized in mid-March. However, there is still a great possibility of reductions.

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ZAGREB, 2 March 2021 - Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Tuesday that 30,142 people had registered for COVD-19 vaccination on the ministry's vaccination website between 11 am on Monday and 6.30 pm today

He thanked them in a tweet "for the interest expressed and the trust in science and medicine."

Citizens may register for vaccination at cijepise.zdravlje.hr or by calling 0800 0011 or their family doctor.

March 2, 2021 - Hajduk tops NK Zagreb 3:0 in the final Croatian Cup round of 16 match on Tuesday. 

Hajduk beat Zagreb 3:0 at Veslačka Street Stadium in Zagreb on Tuesday and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Croatian Cup, where they will play away against Gorica later this month. 

Like other clubs in the lower leagues, NK Zagreb does not have a license to play league matches, so they readied for the match against Hajduk by playing friendlies.

On the other hand, Hajduk entered the match coming off two league victories in the past two weeks, both against Rijeka at Rujevica. Between those matches, most of the team was quarantined due to COVID-19. 

The match ended 0:0 at the half, though that quickly changed when coach Paolo Tramezzani subbed on Marko Livaja, Marco Fossati, and Darko Todorović.

In the 58th minute, Jairo scored for 0:1 Hajduk. Six minutes later, Zagreb was left with a player less as Karlo Strunje received his second yellow card, and in the 66th minute, Livaja scored from a free-kick to increase Hajduk's lead to 0:2.

Jairo sealed Hajduk's victory in the 70th minute after Livaja played him phenomenally for 0:3.

Croatian Cup Quarterfinals

Osijek - Rijeka (Wednesday, March 3 at 14:30)
Dinamo - Slaven Belupo (Wednesday, March 3 at 17:00)
Oriolik - Istria 1961 (Wednesday, March 17 at 15:00)
Gorica - Hajduk (Tuesday, March 16 at 17:00)

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

ZAGREB, 2 March 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday he was shocked by the death of Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić and that all he had to say about him, he had said in recent years.

"I knew him personally, very personally and closely. We worked together for some time. All I had to say, I said in recent years. His death shocked me. It's sad, difficult," he told the press during a visit to Istria County.

Bandić died of a heart attack on Sunday aged 65.

Milanović said he would not attend the funeral tomorrow, recalling that he had extended his condolences on Sunday. Asked if it bothered him that the Croatian Navy's harmony-singing group would sing at the funeral, he said, "Let them sing."

"If I said something else, I'd come off as a heartless and ruthless person, but we'll have to regulate that a little more precisely, under my supervision," he said, adding, "This is a situation in which some people and parties are trying to profit politically, to exploit this small, quiet war of succession to what Milan leaves behind."

Speaking of the election of the Supreme Court president, Milanović said he would inform Prime Minister Andrej Plenković about his candidate this month.

"In the end, we'll talk about the person. And the law which was adopted contrary to the Constitution, they should repeal it as though it never existed. I can't abide by it because I would be in breach of the Constitution and I took an oath that I would protect it."

Milanović said he did not have a candidate yet. "I'll do my best so that we can talk about a candidate this month already. We have a lot of time ahead to analyse and question this person. The president of the Supreme Court can do little. I want that little in action, yet so far I haven't seen even that."

Speaking of the government's fight against COVID-19, Milanović said it was making an effort, as were all European governments, but once again criticised the national COVID-19 response team.

"We have an unconstitutional bastard and that's not good. We should learn something from that and see that it doesn't happen again. A group of people whom no one elected can't formally and legally run the state, and we have been watching that for a year now. There are always people willing to accept that, but it is my duty to warn that that's bad and that it's always one step from something more, and we don't want that any more."

ZAGREB, 2 March 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday that he had not yet spoken with the President of the Republic about the selection of the Supreme Court President, underscoring that his solution was based on respecting the Constitution, law and the institute of a public selection procedure.

Responding to questions from the press, Plenković said that he had not yet spoken  with President Zoran Milanović after Milanović said that he would not support any of the three candidates that applied for the position of Supreme Court President but that he would nominate his candidate and let parliament decide.

Plenković said on Monday that he had a scenario that would be good for everyone and that he would consult with the ruling majority. "We can also consult with the President of the Republic to reach a solution," he added.

Today he said that we was working on the idea and that his scenario was based on respecting the Constitution, law and the institute of a public selection process.

Asked about the debt to drug wholesalers, which has exceeded HRK 6 billion, and that wholesalers were limiting medical supplies to hospitals, Plenković said that citizens would not go without medicines and that Health Minister Vili Beroš and Finance Minister Zdravko Marić would continue talks with wholesalers and "find a solution."

Asked about the situation in the Trogir shipyard, which has 106 employees and is facing a bankruptcy, Plenković said the expected the owner to find a solution while the government "has its mechanisms of support for workers as has been usual in other situations."

Plenković attended a meeting of the Požega-Slavonia County branch of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in Pleternica to show his support to the HDZ candidates in May's local election.

ZAGREB, 2 March 2021 - President Zoran Milanović visited Infobip, the leading IT company in Croatia and the region, in the Istria County town of Vodnjan on Tuesday, saying he was impressed by the company's business performance.

"People used to come to Vodnjan for its tourist attractions and olive oil, and now they come because of a company that is not so well known in Croatia, but is incredible. I want to draw attention to what competent and dedicated people can do, because this firm operates throughout the world and was not established with the aid of the state," Milanović said.

"The company has grown organically. It has offices throughout the world, a revenue of nearly a billion euro, and IT specialists from around the world work in Vodnjan, in Zagreb and on all continents," he added.

Asked by the press if the government could learn something from this example, Milanović said that the government was not an obstacle in this case. "Whatever we may think of Croatia, taxes here are generally on average, even below the average. The administration should be friendly towards people who want to change things and who want to embark on an adventure."

He said he was impressed by the company's figures and prospects. "About 300 people work in Vodnjan alone, which shows that Croatia has a potential. We often try to convince ourselves that we are the worst, that we are no good, that everyone else is better and that we are on the verge of collapse, but that's not true," Milanović said.