ZAGREB, 13 Aug 2021 - The International Summer Music School Pučišća, which is being held on the southern island of Brač in July and August has gathered participants from Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Austria, Russia, Ukraine, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Switzerland, Latvia, France, Sweden and Canada.

Classes are held by professors from Croatia and abroad, organisers of the Summer Music School reported.

The International Summer Music School Pučišća is being held in July and August every year since 1995. It covers different musical genres (classical, jazz, pop/rock/fusion) in separate music workshops divided by instruments. Each instrumental course is held in a separate 9 or 10-day session and consists of individual work with music professors and work in instrumental groups. During the 9 or 10-day course, many concerts are held: by attendants, professors and other musicians, in Pučišća and in other towns on the island of Brač, and at the end, a final attendants' concert is held.

There are no entry requirements for participants in the courses and everyone is welcome to participate regardless of origin, age and musical ability or knowledge. The courses consist of a combination of individual and group instrumental teaching.

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ZAGREB, 13 Aug 2021 - In the past 24 hours, 308 new coronavirus cases and two deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Friday.

There are 1,640 active cases, including 199 hospitalised patients, 21 of whom are on ventilators, while 4,352 persons are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, Croatia has registered 366,357 coronavirus cases, 8,280 deaths and 356,437 recoveries, including 218 in the past 24 hours.

So far 45.7% of the adult population has been fully vaccinated.

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August 13, 2021 - Gradac is currently testing a new dog beach policy that allows dogs at beaches in the heart of the municipality after 7 pm.  But that's not all the animal-friendly Gradac does to help our furry friends. 

'From June 1 to September 30, dogs are allowed to stay on the beach after 7 pm' is a notice that appeared in several places around Gradac, the last municipality on the Makarska Riviera. Although Gradac already has an existing beach for dogs, the new beaches, where dogs are allowed to stay at certain times of the day, are not located outside the municipality, but in its heart, reports Jutarnji List.

"This year we launched a pilot project on several beaches. The idea was to see how it would work - I mean the cleanliness of the beaches in particular. Of course, the owners are responsible for that. If the project succeeds, and we will know that at the end of the summer, then next year we will allow the dogs to bathe on all our beaches after 7 pm," says the mayor Matko Burić.

For now, there is no problem. The owners seem to be cleaning up after their dogs because there are no feces, and those swimmers who come to the beach at that time are not bothered by dogs in the least. Jutarnji List tested it themselves during their stay in Gradac and never noticed any feces, nor any problem with those who found themselves on the beach at the time.

"Next year we plan to make a perfect beach that will be only for dogs. We will fence it so that owners and dogs have their peace, and we will equip it with all the necessary facilities so that it would be good for all our guests. We care about animals and we want all our guests to feel welcome," announced Mayor Burić.

The municipality of Gradac is known among animal lovers for having good cooperation with associations that care for dogs, while cats can live freely on the street and be neutered at the expense of the municipality. Gradac also provides cats with food at several feeding spots, which communal wardens bring every day. As a result, the cat population in that part of the coast is under control, and the cats are healthy. Unlike many places on the coast where the barbaric practice of poisoning cats before the season is common, Gradac resolves the issue civilly and humanely.

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August 13, 2021 - Velika Gospa COVID-19 measures are being prepared around Croatia. While Erdut will not limit the number of pilgrims, Sinj will not hold a procession for the second year in a row, and Trsat will recommend masks even at outdoor mass. 

Preparations are underway to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption (Velika Gospa). The largest number of believers is expected in Sinj, Marija Bistrica, Aljmaš, and Trsat. 

"It is, as we know, the most visited day in our sanctuary by pilgrims who will flow into this valley from all sides like a river," said Rev. Ante Markić, pastor of the Shrine of Our Lady of Refuge for Dnevnik Nova TV.

The number of pilgrims is not limited, but the celebration, as last year, takes place under epidemiological measures. One of them is the ban on touching the statue and the painting.

"There will definitely be a disinfectant next to drinking water, and we ask citizens to adhere to the measures and to think of themselves and everyone else who comes after them," said Darko Barjaktarevic from the Erdut Tourist Board.

"Masks are only taken off when pilgrims find their place."

Special measures will also apply to the Shrine of Our Lady of Trsat.

"While the faithful are moving, even though all the masses are outside in Trsat, they must wear, or it is recommended, to wear masks. And when they find their place, when they sit down, they can take it off," said Krunoslav Kocijan, guardian of the Shrine of Our Lady of Trsat.

There will be no procession in Sinj again.

"Unfortunately, this is impossible to achieve if we want to be responsible, if we want to save as many people as possible from infection or, God forbid, from death," said Fr. Ante Čovo, guardian of the Franciscan Monastery of Our Lady of Sinj.

One of the specifics of the shrines in Sinj and Aljmaš is touching Our Lady's image or statue. "It is strictly forbidden on these occasions," Čovo noted.

"I always emphasize that even when there was no corona. They can perform their devotion without touching it," believes Ante Markić, pastor of the Shrine of Our Lady of Refuge.

For everything to go well, Friar Kocijan urges the faithful to adhere to epidemiological recommendations.

"We will not count how many people will come; everyone is welcome," concluded Kocijan.

For all you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, make sure to bookmark our dedicated COVID-19 section and select your preferred language.

August 13, 2021 - The legendary Michael Jordan will present Toni Kukoč at the Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony next month!

After it was announced in May that Toni Kukoč would be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Illinois, we learned on Thursday that one of the greatest basketball legends to live would introduce the Croatian basketballer to the Hall of Fame.

When talking about basketball greats, it's impossible to miss mentioning the legendary American basketball player and one of the greatest of all time, Michael Jordan, Kukoč's teammate on the Chicago Bulls. Jerry Reinsdorf, longtime owner of the Bulls, will join Jordan on stage with the former Croatia national team player during the ceremony on September 11, 2021, at the MassMutual Center. 

Along with Kukoč, owner of three NBA rings, the 2021 class includes Val Ackerman, Rick Adelman, Chris Bosh, Bob Dandridge, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Howard Garfinkel, Yolanda Griffith, Lauren Jackson, Clarence Jenkins, Pearl Moore, Paul Pierce, Bill Russell, Ben Wallace, Chris Webber, and Jay Wright.

Toni Kukoč will become the fifth Croat in the Basketball Hall of Fame after Krešimir Ćosić (1996), Dražen Petrović (2002), Mirko Novosel (2007) and Dino Rađa (2018).

Although he was a three-time NBA champion and winner of the award for the best sixth player in the strongest league globally, a league where he spent 13 years, Kukoč could not have a place in the Hall of Fame based on his NBA career. That is why he was nominated as a candidate for international basketball, and a special International Committee decides on its representative every year. It consists of seven members, and a nominee must receive six affirmative votes to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

With the inclusion of Kukoč, Croatia became the country with the most representatives in the Hall of Fame after the USA. So far, it has been tied at the top with Serbia, which has four - Divac, Bora Stankovic, Aleksandar Nikolic, and Drazen Dalipagic.

Kukoč is the only basketball player in history who has not only won the European Champions Cup / Euroleague and the NBA ring three times but did so for three years in a row. During all three European titles with Jugoplastika, he was named the best player of the Final Four, winning two of the most prestigious European individual awards (Euroscar and Mister Europa) nine times. He also won four championships and two Yugoslav cups, as well as the Italian league and cup. In addition, he won the Olympic silver in Barcelona in 1992 and two European and one world bronze with the Croatia national team. He was also an Olympic silver medalist with Yugoslavia in 1988, won the world gold, two European gold, and one bronze and three gold with junior selections.

Source: HRT

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August 13, 2021 - You came to Hvar expecting sunny days and you weren't conned. Meet and thank Croatian scientist Grgur Bučić who started the weather station on Hvar, one of the first in Croatia, which measured how sunny Hvar really is. 

There's nothing worse than when a traveller on a short holiday on the Croatian coast ends up stuck in their hotel room because of bad weather. Unless you want to risk bad weather sabotaging your Adriatic swimming experience, and maybe if you're lucky to get rescued by indoor pools, you should definitely play it safe and go to Hvar. Known for years as the sunniest Croatian island, there couldn't be a safer place to count on a rain-free holiday.

During my time in Hvar town, the forecast showed rain and uncertain weather on the coast, but even the couple of clouds that formed over Hvar quickly dispersed and probably headed over to the mainland, to Split or elsewhere.

In addition to swimming in the Adriatic, Hvar has plenty of heritage and things to see, like the Spanish Fortress (Tvrđava Španjola), lots of churches (such as St. Stephen’s Cathedral), its historical theatre (the oldest municipal theatre in all of Europe, by the way), an archaeological collection in the former Dominican St. Mark’s Church, and the Natural History Cabinet in the Hanibal Lucić Summer Residence – to name a few. In fact, Hvar boasts more UNESCO heritage than any other island in the world.

One of the other interesting sites is also the Former Church and Monastery of St. Veneranda. As Hvar heritage writes, the church was built in 1561 for the needs of Greek Orthodox sailors who were in the service of Venice. Today, the site serves as an outdoor cinema.

The former church tower, the former weather station © Nina Lelas

Right next to it, back in 1858, famous Croatian nature scientist Grgur Bučić established a weather station, one of the first in the entire country. Being part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy at the time, the station was part of the Austrian network of meteorological stations. Thanks to the measures taken under Bučić's expertise, the sunny days of Hvar are not a market scheme to attract tourists in need of clear sunny weather, but an actually very well-advertised scientific fact. In addition, for his experiments with sponge development, Bučić received global recognition, and seven species of sponges, crabs, and fish were named after him. He published articles regarding meteorology and oceanography and also studied insects and marine life. He also pioneered numerous archaeological digs across Croatia, including on Hvar.

Back in 2018, as TCN wrote, the station marked 160 years of existence. Organised by the Hvar Town Library and State Meteorological and Hydrological Service, this celebratory event revealed some interesting historical moments from and about the station. These include polar lights, storms, falling meteors, earthquakes, vineyards destroyed by hail, sunken ships, and epidemics. In 1884, based on data from Bučić himself, climatologist Julius von Hann (often looked upon as the father of modern meteorology) published his work ''Klima von Lesina'' (The climate of Hvar town), the first-ever such book on a Croatian town or area.

Grgur Bučić © MuzejHvar.com

Today, the Bučić tower is locked, and the path to the church now serves as an outdoor cinema, without that many interesting things to be seen. Could the tower be renovated and showcase the instruments this pioneer station used in the past? Perhaps, and it would certainly be a cool addition to the already extensive offer Hvar has for its visitors.

Veneranda, location of the station, screenshot / Google maps

While waiting to see what the future may bring, it's worth taking a look at this station, not far from the waterfront and the nearby beaches. Express some gratitude and dedicate a refreshing swim to Bučić himself, a brilliant man whose findings gave us scientific, statistical reassurance that Hvar is the sunniest place in all of Croatia.

Learn more about Hvar on our TC page.

For more about Croatian history, follow TCN's dedicated page.

August the 13th, 2021 - Croatian administration is, for anyone who has had even the remotest of dealings with it, horrendously slow. The country is famous for its draconian rules and masochistic love of stamps and red tape, and needing to get anything done in a rush is outside the realm of normal expectation. Croatian project processing is unfortunately no different, and it represents a major obstacle in withdrawing EU cash.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, when it comes to the withdrawal of money from the European Structural and Investment Funds for the previous financial period (2014-2020), Croatia has shifted to a somewhat higher speed. In one year, the country has fortunately grown by almost 20 percent in terms of utilisation, Minister Natasa Tramisak recently emphasized.

However, that means more than two-fifths of the financial envelope, worth about 80 billion kuna or 10.7 billion euros, still remains to be withdrawn. So far, more than 45 billion kuna has been paid out, ie 56 percent (with 47 percent of it having been finally certified).

A kind of fuse for the maximum use of available funds in the given deadline, which is the end of 2023, is the "stock" of contracted projects. About 20 percent more than the available "quota" was agreed upon. In addition to that, the procedures for users, including the rules for public procurement, have been facilitated, and the communication of the competent ministerial department with the European Commission (EC) has been accelerated, they claim.

With the exception of things having been skewed in the sense of the context of the ongoing pandemic, the absorption process is no longer at a snail's pace, says Tramisak. She attributes the difference in terms of utilisation compared to some other EU member states to the fact that this was Croatia's very first programme perspective, while others had been transferring large projects from previous ones, so they were faster in terms of money withdrawal.

In addition, in the first two years of the past period, calls and contracted funds weren't announced at all, and this, as she points out, is difficult for Croatia to compensate for.

However, there is something obvious in the (in)efficiency of Croatia's infamous public administration in the selection procedures for projects set to be co-financed through EU funds. The results of the recently published analysis from Jaksa Puljiz, Sanja Malekovic and Sanja Tisma from the Institute for Development and International Relations are also on this track.

They analysed about thirty calls under the Competitiveness and Cohesion Operational Programme 2014-2020 (OPCK) as the most financially important programme co-financed from the EU budget for Croatia, implemented in the period between 2014 and 2018 and worth about 12.4 billion kuna. It was confirmed that the low efficiency of the system is mostly influenced by Croatian project processing times, ie in terms of dealing with those applications. In Croatia, this implies a significantly longer time than the time prescribed by the Common National Rules, but also than the time of implementation of selection procedures that some previous studies have shown for other EU countries.

Making the first decision on funding in as many as 97 percent of the analysed calls lasted longer than 120 days for Croatia, and most often their duration was from 180 to 360 days. This is likely not a surprise to anyone who has ever tried to do, well, just about anything official here.

“These are extremely long deadlines that have numerous consequences for the absorption and the quality of project implementation. In such a long period of waiting for the beginning of their realisation, it's clear that the circumstances which are very important for successful implementation can change significantly,'' the aforementioned authors point out.

For comparison, they say that similar research once showed that in Germany, neighbouring Slovenia, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Slovakia, between 31 and 49 percent of respondents using EU funds waited less than three months for their project evaluation results.

The problem of the duration of these Croatian project procedures has recently been highlighted by enterprises who have faced a drastic rise in the prices of certain industrial raw materials and construction materials this year. Some argue the issue to the extent that certain projects co-financed by European Union funds could even come into question.

"It used to happen, for example, that the tender (in terms of deadline) states that the competent authority will notify the applicant of the results of the tender within four months, and 10-12 months will elapse before its conclusion," a consultant for EU projects explains.

When it comes to tenders for businesses (not counting, therefore, public bodies and social groups), the impression, he says, is that they are better off and more consistently organised for farmers than those for enterprises or, for example, those engaged in the fishing industry.

In the Competitiveness and Cohesion Operational Programme, which was the subject of scientific work of the IRMO analysis, the duration of selection procedures is, among other things, a consequence of the large volume of documentation required in most cases from the applicants.

In almost 60 percent of these calls, Croatian applicants quite unsurprisingly had to submit at least 11 different documents, which is quite a high number, according to the authors. Sometimes that figure is even higher, with between 16 and 20 documents needing to be submitted, and in seven percent of cases, even more paperwork than that was required in Croatia.

Nearly 40 percent of applicants stated that their entire application with all of the required attachments had more than 100 pages when complete. Among the more extensive were, for example, public calls related to the energy renovation of buildings, the promotion of sustainable development and the restoration of cultural heritage, as well as the modernisation and construction of student dormitories.

Approximately the same percentage of applications had less than 50 pages in total, which is still a lot.

There is also a large number of frequently asked questions about published invitations, which suggests that the tender documentation needed is often very unclear to applicants. In more than two thirds of the analysed calls, there were more than 100 questions asked. This shows that the Croatian project procedure is not only longer than it should be, but complex and as clear as mud. That also shouldn't come as much of a shock to most.

All this leads to changes and additions to the tender documentation, then the extension of application deadlines, and then the later contracting or later start of Croatian project implementation in relation to the original plans. In less than a quarter (23 percent) of cases, calls didn't undergo any changes, and nearly half (47 percent) underwent two or more changes, only adding to the confusion.

This also indicates that the preparation of tender documentation for competitive tenders for the state administration was a demanding task that often resulted in its amendments and the long duration of Croatian project selection procedures.

The competent ministries and state agencies received a lot of complaints due to the request for documentation that the applicants consider to be entirely necessary.

“Among such examples is the insistence on the original excerpt from the court register instead of the competent clerk simply checking it directly over the Internet. The same is true for the original BON2 certificate from the bank instead of the "downloaded" certificate from internet banking, as well as for the tax certificate confirming the absence of tax debt instead of direct verification,'' said one EU project expert.

Some changes in that direction are already being worked on, thankfully. Minister Tramisak recently said that reforms are being made so that the eFunds system is connected to all of Fina's public services, which will reduce administrative burdens. "People will just need to give their consent for documentation to be accessed online for certain items that they had to supply themselves so far,'' she assured.

For more on EU and Croatian projects, follow our dedicated lifestyle section.

August the 13th, 2021 - Croatian air traffic has well and truly outshined the dire situation we experienced last year as the vaccination rollout continues globally and restrictions on travel and tourism slowly but steadily allow for more flexibility. 285 percent more air passengers arrived in June 2021 when compared to the same month in 2020.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, although the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is far from totally over, all indicators suggest that almost all trends and figures in terms of freight and passenger traffic in national and international traffic, if not already returned to their pre-pandemic levels, are very much on track for a safe recovery.

The data from the Central Bureau of Statistics on traffic in Croatian seaports and airports also confirm this. According to that data, traffic in seaports doubled in June this year, and tripled in airports when compared to last year. Croatian air traffic has certainly been on the rebound, and it hasn't come a moment too late.

According to the aforementioned CBS data, 5.43 million passengers embarked and disembarked in Croatian seaports during the second quarter of 2021, which is an increase of 81.8 percent compared to the same period last year.

Compared to pre-pandemic, record 2019, this is still a drop of 41.9 percent, but that isn't really surprising. Circumstances caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus back in 2020 directly affected the decline in passenger and vehicle traffic across all Croatian seaports, and things are now finally showing signs of steady and sure recovery.

After a six-month break, in the second quarter of 2021, the return of passengers on cruise ships began. There have so far been 12 thousand passengers, but compared to the same quarter of 2019, traffic in that sector fell by a depressing 97.6 percent.

In the second quarter of 2021, there was an increase in vehicles on Croatia's roads when compared to 2020, but compared to 2019, 19.5 percent fewer passenger vehicles and 78.6 percent fewer buses were loaded and unloaded on/from vessels.

The total turnover of goods at the level of the Republic of Croatia increased by 10.2 percent when compared to the same period back in 2020, which was caused by the increase in the turnover of dry bulk goods by 42.5 percent, which has a share in the total turnover of goods of 26 percent.

Current cargo turnover, with a share in the total turnover of goods of 51 percent, decreased by 2.6 percent when compared to the same period back in 2020. Of the five ports that account for 92 percent of the total turnover of goods in seaports, the Port of Ploce (57.7 percent), the Port of Rijeka (18.1 percent) and the Port of Split (18.1 percent) all saw increases in 2021's second quarter.

In the first half of 2021, compared to the same period in 2020, the total number of ships arriving in Croatian seaports increased by 30.3 percent, the total passenger traffic by 40.7 percent, and the total cargo traffic by 12.5 percent.

A similar situation, but with more pronounced growth, can be seen in Croatian air traffic, which suffered tremendously throughout 2020.

In June 2021, the total passenger traffic at Croatian airports amounted to 320 thousand or 285.4 percent more than in June 2020, when Croatian air traffic brought only 83 thousand passengers into the country. For comparison, back in June 2019, the turnover was 1.56 million passengers.

In June 2021, 20.6 percent of passenger traffic from June 2019 was realised. The largest amount of passenger traffic was realised by Split Airport, with 115 thousand passengers, which is 360.1 percent more than in June 2020, followed by Zagreb Airport with 100 thousand passengers and Dubrovnik Airport with 59 thousand passengers.

For more, follow our travel section.