ZAGREB, Sept 30, 2020 - Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman said on Wednesday he expected a "positive decision" by the US in the months ahead about waiving visas for the US  for Croatian nationals.

"Various bodies in the US decide on that, with support from the American embassy. I think we can expect a positive decision in the months ahead," the minister told the public broadcaster two days before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due in Croatia.

In order for visas to be waived, Croatia must have less than 3% of applications rejected. In the EU, only Croatian, Cypriot, Bulgarian and Romanian nationals need a visa to enter the US.

US Ambassador to Croatia Robert Kohorst said on Tuesday he still had no official report on the meeting of that requirement but that he was very optimistic.

Croatian state leaders and Pompeo will meet in Dubrovnik and are also due to discuss the revocation of double taxation between the two countries.

"Today the government will make a decision. We'll show it to Secretary of State Pompeo. An evaluation is necessary also on their side and that will contribute to the legal certainty of taxpayers, notably those who have dual citizenship," said Grlic Radman.

"Mechanisms for cooperation between the US and Croatian tax authorities will also be established," he announced.

Croatian state leaders and Pompeo will also talk about the purchase of F-16 fighter jets.

"There is a call for bids, there is a procedure and deadlines," Grlic Radman said, adding that "the US interest is natural, just as the interests of the other competing states."

Croatia is buying 12 fighter jets. Offers have been submitted by the US, Sweden, France, and Israel.

In Dubrovnik, Pompeo will meet with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Grlic Radman, and Defence Minister Mario Banozic.

Grlic Radman said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was expected to visit Croatia by year's end for the opening of the embassy on a new location.

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September 30, 2020 - As the story spreads slowly in the mainstream global media, a Croatian digital nomad visa update. 

Whisper it quietly, but the story is gathering pace and attracting increasing international attention and coverage. 

Just 44 days after Split-based Dutch entrepreneur Jan de Jong invited Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic to introduce digital nomad visa for Croatia in an open letter on LinkedIn back on May 11, 2020, Plenkovic announced his government's intention to introduce the visa, following a meeting with de Jong. The topic was appended to the updating of the Foreigners Act and introduced to Parliament the next day. 

Do Jong has been very active in meetings with no less than six ministries since that commitment, as Croatia moves with uncharacteristic bureaucratic speed to introduce the visa, making it only the second country in Europe (after Estonia) and the fifth in the world to offer the nomad visa. With Croatia one of the top tourism and lifestyle destinations in Europe, strong remote worker interest in Croatia has so far been somewhat restricted by Croatia's famous bureaucracy. Non-EU residents can currently only stay for 90 days at a time, but the new visa will allow a 12-month stay for bona fide nomads, who can tick a checklist of requirements, include health insurance, no criminal record, and proof of a certain level of income (this is expected to be lower than Estonia).

I spoke to de Jong earlier today, who said that things are very much on track. His latest meeting last week was with the Ministries of the Interior and Finance, together with a tax expert who helped draft the Estonian digital nomad visa law, and the Croatian tax authorities. Discussions went well, and his feedback from the ministries is that all issues should be solved by the end of the year, paving the way for the introduction of the visa in 2021. 

The announcement has caused plenty of interest among the global nomad community, and it has led to various initiatives around Croatia to prepare the country for this new type of tourism, including the TCN/Saltwater partnership with the City of Dubrovnik and Dubrovnik Tourist Board announced earlier this week (read more in Dubrovnik Embraces Digital Nomads: October EF Week Events, April International Competition). 

The new initiative received perhaps its biggest coverage so far yesterday, as The Guardian highlighted Croatia as one of the first five countries to open its borders to digital nomads in The rise of the 'half-tourist' who combines work with a change of scene.

And it was nice to see a mention of TCN in the accompanying links...

The digital nomad visa initiative has been entirely a private one until it reached the Prime Minister's desk (you can learn more about the journey here), and the considerable media coverage generated has all been organic. 

It is part of a growing trend of concrete results which are coming from writing about the positives and opportunities in Croatia, which the entrepreneurial sector are quietly pushing forward. 

Another excellent example of this also involves de Jong and Dalmatian business partner Jerko Trogrlic, who recently started an initiative to combine Dutch technology and know-how with Croatian labour (creating 72 jobs) to grow tomatoes on a 5-hectare plot in an economically depressed part of northern Croatia (read more in CROP Croatia: Jerko Trogrlic and Jan de Jong to Make Croatia Plant Again). 

Within days of announcing the initiative on LinkedIn, de Jong had received more than 5 million euro of investment offers from all over the world.  And the international agriculture media has already picked up on the story, see above. 

There are so many positive initiatives taking place in Croatia at the moment. And if we can start to slowly move away from the default negative mindset and start to celebrate successes rather than keep them under the radar (a Croatian can forgive you anything but success is one of the great truisms here), the arrival of Croatia 2.0 will be all the quicker, and there will be more investments, success stories and jobs created. 

For the latest in the digital nomad world in Croatia, follow the new TCN digital nomad news section. 

September 30, 2020 – Incredible footage of mountain rescue paramedics trialling jet suits for future use in rapid first response. We spoke to the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service to get their verdict and ask if this will be part of the future of HGSS

Flying above incredible terrain not unlike that found around Lika and Velebit in Croatia, paramedics in the UK's Lake District have been videoed trialling jet suits. They could soon join regular mountain rescue services and air ambulance crews as part of any rapid first response required in difficult to reach places.

In Croatia, such tasks are undertaken by HGSS – the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service, who TCN profiled not long ago. We again spoke to their head of service Josip Granić to ask if jet suits are part of the future of HGSS?

Are Jet Suits the future of HGSS?

“It looks interesting. And fun,” Granić told TCN. “I am sure that if it starts to become regular equipment used elsewhere it could make our job much easier and there will be a place for this in the future of HGSS.”

The benefits of jet suits being any part of the future of HGSS are obvious – they can locate and assist injured hikers or mountaineers in a fraction of the time of land-bound rescuers. The test flight footage shows the suit's inventor Richard Browning flying across the Langdale Pikes looking for walkers in a simulated casualty scenario. Within minutes, he locates a woman and child that would have taken rescuers on foot over one hour to find. But, although the future of HGSS could be assisted by such suits, mountain rescuers will surely not be the only ones to whom they are available.

“They will also create a completely new set of risks and potential accidents in more remote areas,” said Granić, with a cautionary tone. HGSS members are volunteers and already put themselves in considerable danger to assist those in need of help. Jet suits add an extra dimension of risk for anyone wearing them and the recreational use of jet suits could place further stress on the future of HGSS.

“I’m sure it will be a great tool once it’s out on the market,” says Granić, “but it could also be a great toy and that could be problematic because it will open up a completely new set of problems. But since we are the service for problem-solving, I’m sure that HGSS will find a way to deal with it.”

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September 30, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia as Croatia Airlines cancels several international departures next month. 

Croatian Aviation reports that the Croatian national airline has made operational changes on international routes departing from Zagreb. Due to weak demand, certain departures on many lines were canceled. We bring you the flight schedule for 10 international lines of Croatia Airlines from October 1 to 16, 2020.

Croatia Airlines has made some changes in its flight schedule for the first half of October this year. The company will continue to operate almost three times a day to Frankfurt, allowing passengers to continue their journey to a number of destinations in Europe and the world with a single stop in the German city. Recall that this was the only international line to Zagreb during the lockdown by which the national company actually enabled the continuous repatriation of Croatian citizens.

Certain departures were canceled on the following lines:

Zagreb - Amsterdam: flights on October 7, 8, and 11 were canceled,

Zagreb - Brussels: flights on October 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 14, and 15 were canceled,

Zagreb - Dublin, the last flight is on October 4, as announced earlier,

Zagreb - Munich route: flights on October 7, 12, and 14 were canceled,

Zagreb - Paris: announced two flights - October 3 and 16,

Zagreb - Sarajevo: announced two flights - October 2 and 16,

Zagreb - Skopje: announced four flights - October 2, 9, 12 and 16,

Zagreb - Zurich: flights on October 2, 6, 7, 9, 12 - 14, and 16 were canceled,

Zagreb - Copenhagen: flights canceled on October 2, 6, 7, 10, 12 - 14.

The Zagreb - London line will operate more often than in September. Croatia Airlines will offer two flights a week, every Monday and Friday, through the first half of October.

There have been some reductions on international routes from Dubrovnik and Split, which will be announced next.

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September 30, 2020 - The European Commission announced on Tuesday that the entry of "Bracki varenik" in the list of products with a protected geographical indication had been approved, reports N1.

Bracki varenik is a product used as an addition to dishes and is obtained by boiling the squeezed juice of fresh or dried grapes until its volume is reduced to approximately one-third of the initial volume. It is produced from autochthonous grape varieties, namely from the red varieties Babic, Crljenko kastelanski, Plavac mali, and the white variety Marastina.

"Bracki varenik" is a sweet liquid of honey aroma, with a slightly pronounced taste and aroma of grapes, and moderately pronounced taste of caramel. It can be from dark red to dark brown if made from red grape varieties, or dark yellow to light brown if made from white grapes.

All phases of production of "Bracki varenik" take place exclusively on the island of Brac from the beginning of September to the end of October of the production season, i.e., the same year. Brac varenik has the status of a top spice that is in danger of falling into oblivion. Its production requires a lot of patience because it must boil for a long time, more than 15 hours. It is an energy concentrate with high sugar content and natural multivitamins and multi-minerals.

By registering a name as a geographical indication, the product's name receives protection equivalent to an intellectual property right for products of a particular geographical origin, which, based on their origin, have special characteristics or reputation. By registering a name, the product is protected from misuse, imitation, or allusion to its name. In this way, the market value of economic operators' products is increased because their uniqueness concerning other similar products or food products is guaranteed.

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September 30, 2020 - The user experience of official Croatian websites for non-Croatian speakers can be very frustrating. So who is taking its foreign visitors seriously?

One of the realities about being a blogger in Croatia and writing for TCN is that I have spent far more time than is healthy over the last decade on official Croatian websites in search of information that simply was not available in English - and often, even in Croatian. 

Official Croatian websites are an interesting sub-species, and in many ways they give a great insight into the mentality and mindset of the authority that they represent. A mindset which - albeit it very slowly - is beginning to change. 

I have lost count of the number of local tourist boards, for example, whose websites exist only in Croatian. Never mind that the point of the website is to provide information to the end-user - the non-Croatian-speaking tourist. Providing an English version is above and beyond the call of duty. Some official websites do have an English version, which once uploaded, is then never updated. A website has been created - tick. An English version (usually much smaller) has been created - tick. And then things are forgotten. Never mind the needs of the end-user. Things then stay the same for years, so much so in fact that ministries can even enter 2020 with the fax machine as their main tool of communication.

I heard a story earlier this year about Mate Rimac and the Rimac Automobili website, which to this day is in English only. When the site first went live, the story goes, Rimac was criticised for not having a Croatian version of the site. The alleged reply is that his market was the world, not the 4 million people living in Croatia - he was engaging with his desired audience. 

This is something that has been missing (and continues to this day) in most of the approaches of official Croatian websites, where the relevant authorities seem to have a mindset that a website is less an effective tool of communication with its audience, and rather a chore to be completed to tick off the box. 

Things are changing, albeit very slowly, and if you look hard, you can see some seeds of mindset change taking place, even in places where you might not suspect it. 

With all my dealings with official Croatian websites this year, the clear winner for me - and this may surprise people - is without question MUP and the Croatian Border Police for their excellent handling of the corona crisis. 

In addition to the 21.7 years of waiting that the Enter Croatia form - available in 11 languages - saved at Croatia's borders in the first three months, MUP produced a  comprehensive information section on all you needed to know, with regularly updated FAQs. In THREE languages - Croatian, English and German. While the Ministry of Tourism was ordering more fax paper to deal with its incoming faxes, MUP was providing a service-oriented approach directly meeting the needs of its end users. If there is an award for official communication during the corona crisis, I sincerely hope that MUP wins it. Having been heavily involved in the information flow since February, I cannot overexaggerate the outstanding role they played. 

Of course, one of the benefits of providing what the customer needs online is that you then don't have use resources to provide the same information to users phoning and emailing for the information. By meeting the needs of the end-user on the website, you have more time to deal with your other tasks. In a commercial mindset, that makes complete sense, but much of Croatian officialdom is far away from that mentality and mindset at the moment. 

But it is changing. 

Last weekend was a real eye-opener for me, as the family and I spent a weekend at arguably Croatia's most progressive town, Sveta Nedelja (coincidentally - or is it? - the home of the Rimac revolution). You can read about our visit to the many successful businesses in the town here, but one of the many things that caught my eye that weekend was the official Sveta Nedelja website.  This little town of 20,000 people had what almost no other local authority has in all Croatia - not only a website in no less than three languages (Croatian, English and German), but also one which is filled with user-friendly advice which not only informs but also gives the impression that it wants you to visit, to invest. As the town's English slogan suggests - Here I Have Everything. 

A local authority which is engaging with its end user. 

Sveta Nedelja is actively courting new business with its transparent administration and tax incentives. The Rimac factor is an obvious pull, as is its superb position just off the motorway and a few minutes from both Zagreb and Slovenia, but many other businesses are moving to the town. And the numbers speak for themselves - 20% more jobs created since 2017 during a global downturn, a 10% population increase since the 2011 census, unemployment at just 3.9% compared to the national average of 9%. 

The three languages are one thing, but the quality of the information available is another. In the entrepreneur section, for example, there are comprehensive sections in three languages on the benefits for entrepreneurs, the investment process in Sveta Nedelja, information about communal contributions and utility fees, as well as contact information which includes an invitation to the Mayor's Open Door session on Mondays from 13:00 to 16:30. 

I have never really spent much time looking at local authority websites in Croatia, but I was now curious to see how the forward-thinking Sveta Nedelja approach compared with some of the bigger cities. 

There was no contest. 

Zagreb has a limited English section, which has all the hallmarks of ticking a box. Its introduction is As we enter 2020, Zagreb will become the headquarters of the Presidency of the Council of the EU. There is a promising Press section on the navbar, which turns out to have been created back in 2017 and has absolutely zero content in it apart from some contact details. 

With the very notable exception of Rijeka (trilingual in English, Croatian and Italian), none of the other big cities in Croatia have any meaningful foreign language section. Some have created the buttons, but the actual content is minimal to non-existent. 

Does any of this matter? Isn't the local authority website primarily for its local residents? Yes, of course it is, but not exclusively. There is more and more foreign interest in the Croatian lifestyle these days, and the introduction of the digital nomad visa will only increase that interest, and some of those will be looking for investment opportunities. But there is another important point here. We live in a global village, with lots of talk of SMART cities and inward investments. The very minimum that a local authority needs to do if they are serious about attracting investment is to make it as easy as possible for any interested parties to get the information they need from Google Search. 

We live in a global market, and ticking a box is no longer sufficent if we want to compete. And if we do want to compete, success is possible. 

Just ask Sveta Nedelja. 

September 30, 2020 - Ivan Rakitic is open to returning to the Croatia national team, the footballer revealed in an exclusive interview with HRT. 

When Ivan Rakitic announced a week ago that he was saying goodbye to the Croatia national football team, many were surprised, though others saw it coming. One of the greatest football players in Croatian history revealed in an exclusive interview with HRT what reasons led Ivan Rakitic to the end of his Croatia career.

Behind Ivan Rakitic is a turbulent period where he made several difficult life decisions for himself and his family, and they followed in his footsteps - even the dogs!

"Dogs are part of our family. There is something else that has not been seen, we also have a little rabbit. In a way we came home, we are where it all started."

Judging by the first two appearances for his new-old club Sevilla, Ivan Rakitic showed that he did not lose the class that adorned him playing for Barcelona at the highest level. Sevilla’s new number 10 won a penalty kick in the Super Cup against Bayern and scored in the Spanish championship against Cadiz.

"There is still work to be done and to prepare even better. For all of us, this summer was something different."

And another very emotional rollercoaster was saying goodbye to the national team.

"The hardest day, maybe the worst day. After no defeat in my career have I felt such pressure in my chest. When I picked up my phone to call the coach, in a way, the words didn't want to come out..."

HRT asked if he would come back if Dalic needed him again to shoot that crucial penalty.

"I always want to leave the door open. My national team, my Vatreni, the coach and the whole of Croatia can count on me. In minutes and penalties - I am always ready for my Croatia."

And he didn't hesitate for long when asked about the Vatreni moment he would remember for the rest of his life.

"Every day was special, every day was something different."

Recall, after 106 appearances and 15 goals for the Croatia national football team, Ivan Rakitic decided to retire. The vice-captain of the national team was one of the key players in Croatia's campaign for the World Cup silver in 2018, when he scored the decisive penalties in the victories against Denmark and Russia.

"Saying goodbye to the Croatia national team is the most difficult decision in my career, but I felt that this was the moment when I had to break and make that decision. I enjoyed every game I played for my homeland, and unforgettable moments from the World Cup will remain among my favorites. I am convinced that we still have a great team with a bright future ahead. I wish my friends and teammates all the international sports luck in the upcoming challenges, and they will have the biggest fan in me," said Ivan Rakitic on his farewell.

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September 30, 2020 - A Dalmatian duo has set out to create 3D animations of ancient Zadar and other Dalmatian cities, which will soon be available in the Google Play app store. 

Dalmacija Danas reports Frane Bilic from ‘MediaUp’ in Zadar, and Stipan Ujdur from Opuzen, have joined forces to create 3D images of Dalmatia and thus Croatia.

As part of this project, the cultural heritage of some Dalmatian cities will be processed in several digital formats.

To start the cooperation, the reconstruction of the Roman Jadera, today's Zadar, is being created, and three of the planned 14 scenes of VR 360 for the mobile application for Android smartphones have been made. The designer of the 3D modeling and photo, video, and VR 360 rendering is Stipan Ujdur from Opuzen. Frane Bilic will program a smartphone application in the MediaUp studio, available in the Google Play store.

"Ancient Jadera is really a large 3D model with many significant neighborhoods to process, but a big problem is documents for that time, drawings, floor plans or illustrations. Domestic and foreign sources were used. With the locals, the big problem is unavailability, vagueness, incompleteness. Unfortunately, that is our big pain. Honestly, I couldn’t do anything without foreign sources of documentation. Domestic works can be seen by those available, but if I want to do something concrete, I have to look for other sources. The geolocation scene is located via the Google Earth 3D map, faithful to the original ancient location.

The first stage is in front of the entrance to the City. Jadera was surrounded by ramparts on all sides; on the south-east rampart, there were three gates, one gate was used for the traffic of people, the other for the traffic of goods, and the middle one was for various purposes. In front of the ramparts was a colony of those who were not Romans by birth, but performed various hard physical jobs, and raised cattle, vegetables and sold them in the city. This scene shows olive, cypress, and laurel plantations of typical Mediterranean plants in this antiquity area.

The amphitheater was outside the ramparts; this will be the last scene in the app, which will be discussed in more detail. Then, it can be seen here when the Romans go from the amphitheater towards the front door.

The second scene is at the entrance to the City, at the beginning of Decumanus Maximus Street, today known as Kalelarga, which was in the same place then and today. Its width was five meters of pavement and two meters on each side for pedestrians, a total of nine U meters. In terms of length, insulas were built in the first row, behind them lower or smaller buildings, but they fit into the square of the insula, such was the grid of streets in Jadera.

Immediately at the entrance to the City, you could feel the hustle and bustle of Roman city life in a small square, some were selling, and others were buying slaves, horses, carpets, pottery, and the like. There were taverns around, retailers of various products and services. Not everyone knew how to read and write Latin, so merchants put various items on and around the door that pointed to a specific sale or service.

I found illustrations showing that clothing was dried on the street, balconies, and windows even in Roman times, just as they are today in Dalmatian towns, known as Tiramol.

The action of the everyday life of the third scene takes place near the basic tower of the aqueduct and the public Roman bath, the spa.

The aqueduct consists of two branches, the water goes from two springs, the first older branch goes from Kneževića vrila, in the area of ​​Vrana Lake, the second branch goes from the source Kučina to the area of ​​today's Smiljevac where it connects to the aqueduct, so Jadera got more water capacity.

Citizens took water from the fountains next to the tower. There were also swimming pools, troughs for washing goods. Such troughs were used only by insulae in the inner yard. Others took water and washed clothes on sidewalks or small squares for larger city districts.

The Roman public bath also had hot water, so they called them "spas." These are the first spas of a total of five that were found in the territory of Jadera. The baths were the size of two squares. These spas were at the intersection of Špira Brusina and Ruđera Boškovića streets today.

On the outskirts of the city along the walls on the inside were shops and crafts that could not be in the market, Emporium, or near the forum, i.e., dangerous and strong odors, blacksmiths, tanners, horsemen. There were also stables and boxes for horses because the Romans guarded and cared for them in the same way as they do today with cars and motorcycles," explained Ujdur.

Simulations done by Stipan Ujdur 

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