ZAGREB, Oct 27, 2020 - Croatia's parliament will convene for a new session in November and the new meeting will begin on 3 November with Question Time and Prime Minister Andrej Plenovic's report on European Council sessions.

The premier is expected to submit the government's annual report on 4 November, and the next day, the proposed revision of the 2020 budget will be on the agenda, whereas on 6 November the legislature is expected to confirm its standing orders to the latest ruling of the Constitutional Court and the current epidemiological situation.

The parliament is expected to consider the government's proposal for the 2021 budget on 19 November, and to adopt it on 25 November.

Presenting the Sabor's schedule for November, Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic said on Tuesday that the parliament would be sitting on almost all working days in November, and that a break will be taken on 18 November, observed as Remembrance Day in memory of the 1991 suffering in Vukovar and Skabrnja.

Jandrokovic said that the parliament's presidency, sitting in extended composition, had today reached a high level of agreement on how the legislature should do its job in the coming period, considering the recent decision by the Constitutional Court to invalidate "epidemiological" amendments to parliament's rules of procedure.

On 21 October, the Court concluded that there were technical solutions to protect health while at the same time not restricting the rights and obligations of lawmakers to participate in debates.

We have agreed that all parliamentary deputies will be able to participate in debates, including those who sit in the main chamber as well as in other sections of the building, Jandrokovic explained.

The presidency also agreed on the procedure and on making it possible for all MPs to make a reply if they want.

Jandrokovic said that for the time being the relocation of the legislature to a bigger facility was not on the table, as it would cost a lot.

October 27, 2020 - An important gathering for the strengthening of ties between Croatia and its diaspora takes place next month as the 6th edition of Croatia Meeting G2 takes place in Zagreb. 

One of the things I have been monitoring over the last few years has been the growing cooperation between Croatia's entrepreneurial sector and the business-minded members of the Croatian diaspora - it has been an exciting journey to observe as a foreign fly on the wall. 

On the surface, things should be fairly simple. The diaspora are successful, weatlh-creating and extremely patriotic. Croatia should be an obvious place for investment and economic cooperation. And while it is true that foreign remittances from the diaspora was more than direct foreign investment to Croatia last year, it is also true that many in the diaspora are extremely reluctant to throw money in Croatia, having suffered many bad experiences with money sent and invested during and in the aftermath of the Homeland War. 

One of the key things missing is trust. Finding the right partner in the homeland is not always easy, especially when the culture over the generations is to put trust and faith in a distant cousin in the homeland, often with disastrous results. 

Thankfully, things are changing, and there are now various initiatives bringing the diaspora closer to the private sector in Croatia. Croatia's young entrepreneurs are engaging more with their diaspora counterparts, relationships are being formed, and business is getting done. Trust is returning as private business engages with private business. 

One of the best of these initiatives is Croatia Meeting G2, which is organised by a mixture of Croatian and diaspora professionals, all of whom are committed to a strengthening of ties and a better Croatia. Held each year in Zagreb, Meeting G2 returns for its sixth edition next month, and it is one of the premier diaspora networking events in the Croatian business calendar. 

As one of the few foreigners with no Croatian heritage to attend these events, I find it fascinating to watch so many sections of Croatian society to come together - some without even a common language, but all bonded by a passion for Croatia itself. Some diaspora conferences are more about emotion than substance, but I have always found the G2 programme stimulating, with a wide selection of guests and topics - and I have never left it without making new friends and several new interesting stories for TCN. 

This year's event - Croatia Meeting G2.6 takes place once more at Forum Zagreb Congress Centre in Green Gold, with a wide variety of local, diaspora and international speakers on some fascinating Croatia-related topics. Having attended the event for some years now, I am delighted to be asked to speak at the conference for the first time. I will be participating in a panel on the second day called 'World' First Haven for Digital Nomads.' Moderated by Eugene Brcic Jones, the other panel speakers will be digital nomad visa champion Jan de Jong (from Split via Zoom), Tanja Polegubic, Andres Wil Gerdes (from Malta via Zoom) and Katarina Bulic Bestulic. 

You can check out the current schedule of sessions below.

Day 1 - Wednesday, November 16 

Day 2 - Thursday, November 17

For more information about the Meeting G2 sixth edition, and to register, visit the official website. 

For more news from the Croatian Diaspora, follow the dedicated TCN section.

ZAGREB, Oct 27, 2020 - Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlic Radman has described as "ill-intentioned" reports that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's visit has been postponed for political reasons, stressing that a future meeting "is beyond question."

The Russian minister was to have visited Croatia on Tuesday but the visit was postponed.

The Jutarnji List daily of Monday said that "Russian sources claim Minister Lavrov is angry because Prime Minister (Andrej) Plenkovic did not want to meet with him", a claim that was strongly dismissed on the same day by the Croatian government, which said that the visit was postponed at the request of the Russian side due to the epidemiological situation at the Russian Embassy in Zagreb.

The government also said that a meeting with the prime minister had been scheduled.

"I don't know where this comes from, all the meetings were arranged," Grlic Radman said on Tuesday, stressing that the Russian ambassador to Croatia had arranged meetings between Lavrov and Plenkovic as well as President Zoran Milanovic and that Lavrov had also been informed of the topics of the meeting with Plenkovic.

Grlic Radman repeated that the visit had been cancelled due to the epidemiological situation.

"To organise a visit by a minister you need to have logistics - an ambassador and their associates to help organise it," Grlic Radman said.

"Just as this meeting has been postponed so will the next be agreed. That is beyond doubt," said the minister.

He could not say when a new date for the visit would be agreed but noted that "agreement will be reached soon."

Lavrov is visiting Athens, Sarajevo and Belgrade as part of his tour of Southeast European countries and only the visit to Zagreb has been cancelled.

ZAGREB, Oct 27, 2020 - The crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic is not a good time to impose additional restrictions on shop hours, but if Sunday work should be restricted, it should be done gradually for at least a year to allow for adjustment, the Croatian Employers Association (HUP) said on Tuesday. 

"Retailers are already facing a reduced business activity, an inability to plan for the future and uncertainties brought about by this crisis. A potential loss of jobs caused by such a decision would only further exacerbate the crisis," HUP said in a press release.

HUP expects the downward trend in sales to continue on account of declining consumer confidence, a deteriorating labour market and a change in consumer habits.

If the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development goes ahead with restricting Sunday work, HUP recommends that a time limit of at least one year after the entry into force of the new bill be provided to allow for adjustment, HUP said.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has recently announced that during its present term in office the government will put forward a bill on Sunday work seeking a balance between not working on Sundays and allowing shops to operate on a certain number of Sundays a year for the sake of tourism and the economy as a whole.

According to the latest data from the national statistical office, retail sales in Croatia fell by 8.6% in August 2020 compared with August 2019, declining for six consecutive months year on year due to the corona crisis.

ZAGREB, Oct 27, 2020 - Health Minister Vili Beros said on Tuesday that his announcement of mobilising the health system means that every health worker has to take the current situation seriously and make a maximum contribution to the fight against the coronavirus epidemic.

"That means that each worker in the healthcare system has to take this situation seriously and that everyone, including myself, has to make a maximum contribution to efforts to overcome this situation," Beros told N1 television.

He explained that plans exist to gradually activate the health system considering the increase in new infections. "Today we had the highest daily number of (COVID-related) deaths and we have to adapt all our capacities to respond to this challenge," he said.

He recalled that all primary intensive care centres have been set up in in Zagreb, Rijeka, Split and Osijek and that regions are obliged to organise secondary and tertiary centres.

"As existing capacities are being filled in (Zagreb's) Dubrava Hospital, new ones are being added and for now it is under control. In the spring already we said that we would be able to organise 250-300 ventilators that are arriving gradually to hospitals and  to distribute personnel, and we also have ta field hospital," he said.

Beros underlined that since this morning the procurement of oxygen supplies, which are significantly more important now, has been organised. The authorities are also considering the providing of possible oxygen supplies for the Arena hall in Zagreb, which has been turned into a field hospital.

It remains to be seen how many doctors, nurses, carers will be infected or in self-isolation

"I think the health system has sufficient reserve capacities to adequately care for everyone but the question is how many doctors, nurses and carers will become infected or have to self-isolate. That is why we have established a register of health workers who have recovered from Covid-19 and who are seropositive. They are the basis of our future fight," he said.

Other assistant staff are being trained - medical students in their last year and future nurses. Also, institutions are calling for the urgent employment of carers of whom 1,000 are currently registered as unemployed.

"That is important for the homogenisation of the people, to realise that the virus is not a hoax, it is not a global conspiracy. The virus is causing citizens to become ill by the day and unfortunately today 18 people have died. That is a black record but if we observe it in the context of the number of people who are infected and hospitalised, then that is not unexpected," said Beros.

Today's lower number of new infections does not necessarily mean that this is the result of the latest measures, they will only be able to be analysed in a week or two.

An inspection is still underway in Dubrava Hospital and based on the preliminary results no significant ommissions occurred there, said Beros.

October 27, 2020 – It took three months for Marin Zovko to walk 2,282 kilometers from Ilok to Prevlaka. He carried a 21-kilogram backpack with him, and he walked in the rain for days.

As 24sata reports, 38-year-old Marin Zovko from Zagreb walked the whole of Croatia in 100 days this summer, namely the trails Croatia Long Distance and Via Adriatica. He set off on June 28 and finished on October 5.

Croatia Long Distance covers the four most protruding points, the easternmost Ilok, the northernmost Sveti Martin, the westernmost Savudrija, and the southernmost Prevlaka. Via Adriatica starts from the southernmost point in Istria, from Cape Kamenjak, and ends also in Prevlaka. Marin successfully mastered both tracks and walked an incredible 2282 kilometers.

Loneliness was the hardest

He has been actively involved in mountaineering for six years, but by profession, he is an IT specialist. He walked an average of 25 km a day, and the maximum daily mileage was 57 km. Although he went through very difficult terrain and struggled with difficult weather conditions, he did not think about giving up.

"I wasn't sure either, but I believed I would get to the end," said Marin, who fortunately did not suffer any injuries on the way. He had the great support of family, friends, and co-workers, but out of all the physical exertion and weather conditions, the most difficult was loneliness.

"In 100 days of walking, I only had company for nine days, which means I walked alone for 90 days. And it used to be quite difficult, especially when Velebit and rain happen, and when you don't see a living person around you for five days. And then when you go down to a village after so many days of solitude, you talk to the lady at the cash register for 15 minutes because you wanted a little communication," said Marin, who was pleasantly surprised by the people he met along the way.

Next is kayaking on the Adriatic

During the trip, he met all the animals except the wolf and the lynx, but he had no major unpleasant situations. He says that you cannot prepare for such an endeavor, but you simply need to be in good physical shape.

"As the days went by, I felt progress. In the beginning, I had to stop every half hour, 40 minutes, take off my backpack to rest a bit and come to my senses, and towards the end, I could walk for two hours without stopping," Marin explained.

His backpack weighed about 21 kilograms on average, and the heaviest was 24 kilograms.

"I brought everything. I had a stove, cooking utensils, a gas cartridge, a burner, food for a minimum of three days, sleeping bags, a sleeping pad, a sleeping bag between two trees, T-shirts, long sleeves, leather jacket, hat, glove, miscellaneous electronics,” revealed Marin, who planned to complete the trip in 90 days, but the weather conditions dictated the pace.

In 100 days of travel, he also had 15 days of rest because, as he says, rest was inevitable for him. His next wish is to go kayaking on the Adriatic, but this time from south to north.

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

October 27, 2020 - The recent Mate Rimac promo video on living and working in Croatia is an excellent cornerstone for a new direction for a country which needs to reinvent its tourism strategy. 

Things are a different than how they used to be. 

It used to be the case that you worked hard all year, then you had time off and took a 2-week holiday in the sun.

The distinction was clear. Most of the time you were working (an incredible 50 weeks a year, say some of my American friends as they wondered at the Dalmatian lifestyle of waiting tourism to happen and then for the olives to ripen). And then a much shorter time - 2-4 weeks usually  - was vacation time, where work was a distant memory. 

Then came the onset of technology - emails, SMS messages from the office. It was no longer a guarantee that a holiday was an opportunity to switch off completely from the office. 

And then came the next stage of development, one which is evolving right before our very eyes - the rise of the remote working opportunity. 

It is now much more common for people to take work with them on holiday and for those holidays to be longer. If you can work for a few hours a day in the hotel while the family is off at the beach, then join them later, that is a much better option than being stuck in the office back home. 

The biggest change, however, has come with more companies allowing staff to work from home, or elsewhere. This has led to an increase in digital nomads, and one pre-pandemic prediction had as many as one billion remote workers by 2035, a number which perhaps looks conservative given recent events. 

As long as they are in touch with their office during working hours, an increasing number of people can now work from anywhere, thereby offering a huge range of new opportunities, as well as a type of tourism in which Croatia sells but does not really promote effectively. 

Lifestyle tourism. 

Rather than the 50-week/2-week work/holiday dynamic of yesteryear, this relationship is now a lot more blurred, and tourism (lifestyle living) mixes with work a lot more these days. 

Why not spend a month in another country, working for the office back home by day, then enjoy the local exotic delights by night and at the weekend? It is not classical tourism, which is a lot more rigid, and the flexibility of work location allows these remote workers to spend longer in a country than they would on that beach holiday, experience more, and - crucially for the local economy - spend more. 

Not tourism as we know it, but a much better type of tourism - lower impact, more sustainable, bigger spend, and one where word of mouth will bring others to follow. 

I wrote recently about the recent Mate Rimac promo video, Working and Living in Croatia, calling it the best promo video I had seen for some time in Croatia. Quite when Rimac has the time for such side projects is a different matter, given that his day job is revolutionising the global car industry, but his video captured two of Croatia's greatest selling points, which are currently being undersold. 

Safety and Lifestyle. 

And, to show how the boundaries between work and tourism have become so blurred, his video was not aimed at tourists, rather at showing what a great place Croatia is to live and work. A place that he personally loves, and that people from some 35 countries have moved to in his company alone. 

Listening to the impressions of outsiders is always instructive, for they often see things that locals take for granted. As I have written before, one of my friends runs a successful luxury tour agency, and he recounted the moment when he discovered the secret of selling Dalmatia to rich clients.

"I was having lunch in this olive grove with a group from New York," he explained. "There was a lemon tree, and one of the group walked over and picked a lemon from the tree. He was mesmerised. Later he told me that this was the highlight of the trip. Picking a lemon from a tree, something that he would never be able to do back home. It taught me that the simplest authentic Dalmatian experiences are also the most highly prized. Easy to arrange, and people are willing to pay."

Rimac's video is insightful, as it focuses on the view of Croatia and what it has to offer, almost exclusively through the eyes of his international team. The South African who wonders at the safety of the country, having seen two 16-year-old girls walking home alone at 2am, for example - something that would never happen at home. But the message of lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle shines through the video, as does too that work v life balance.  

There is a lot of discussion of the digital nomad visa for Croatia at the moment, which looks like it will be available in early 2021, offering Croatia's lifestyle to a new mobile global market for 12 months at a time. And while the early feedback is that this would be very welcome, Croatia's lifestyle tourism based on people working here on a temporary basic is already a very well-established thing. Even with restrictions of maximum stays of 90 days for non-EU residents, there are hundreds of digital nomads currently in Croatia (if not more), people who have come to sample the Croatian vibe over an extended period. And with stays of one to three months, their net spend is usually more than the average tourist coming for a week or two. 

As the Rimac promo video points out, these remote workers are attracted to Croatia for the same things as his foreign staff - safety and lifestyle, as well as the range of fantastic authentic experiences that Croatia offers to see and do. Croatia, Your Safe, Authentic, Lifestyle Destination. It has more of a message and focus than Croatia, Full of Life, doesn't it?

Rimac raves about the lifestyle, as well as the emerging startup scene in Croatia. His focus is living and working in Croatia. All the points in the video are relevant to tourism as well, and never has work and play been as aligned as now, or Croatia looked more attractive place to live and work. Either for a fabulous company such as Rimac full-time, or for yourself with your online business, for a month, two or more. The new tourism normal for many.

Croatia is one of the safest countries in Europe to visit. It also has the best lifestyle in Europe. Add in all the extraordinary authentic experiences, great English, good infrastructure, accessibility, affordability, natural beauty, and much more, it should not be hard to attract even more remote workers looking for an authentic lifestyle experience after they finish their online working chores of the day. 

It is a relatively new kind of tourism, but one which could dwarf the current (and non-sustainable) accidental tourism approach. Longer stays, more community involvement, less location pressure on peak season beaches, more revenue - there are many advantages that this new type of tourism could bring over the existing mess. 

And if our tourism chiefs are looking for some ideas, I am sure that young Rimac could find some time for a coffee. 

00:12 Why is Rimac based in Croatia

01:39 Overview and location

02:08 What Croatia offers

02:51 Language

03:31 Food culture

04:10 Prices and standard of living

04:40 Mindset

05:07 Getting here: documentation

05:40 Finding a job for your partner

05:46 Accommodation and commuting

06:47 Croatian culture

07:12 Croatian women

07:33 Safety

08:25 Christmas market in Zagreb

09:12 Traveling and activities in Croatia

10:18 Working in Rimac

12:36 Growing startup culture

For the latest travel info, bookmark our main travel info article, which is updated daily. 

Read the Croatian Travel Update in your language - now available in 24 languages

Join the Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber community.

ZAGREB, Oct 27, 2020 -  Vukovar Mayor Ivan Penava said on Tuesday that not holding the commemoration procession in Vukovar on October 18 is not an option and that city authorities plan to organise it adhering to epidemiological measures.

"Not observing Remembrance Day or not holding the commemoration procession is absolutely out of the question," Penava told reporters.

He underlined that city authorities are sending messages that there is no room for any tension in the procession that marks the calamity of Vukovar in the Homeland War, "nor when politics is concerned, nor when coronavirus is concerned," he said.

Penava said that city authorities would carefully monitor epidemiological measures and instructions and that they will adhere to them in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus to the minimum measure possible.

"We will find a compromise so that the procession is held while on the other hand respecting all epidemiological measures, to show responsibility towards all those participating in the procession," concluded Penava.