Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic Calls for Reform of UN
ZAGREB, Sept 25, 2020 - The crises that have impacted the world in 2020 show that commitment to multilateralism is more relevant than ever, Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in an address at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, calling for reform of UN.
The crises of 2020, such as the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent economic downturn, "clearly showed that our collective commitment to multilateralism is more relevant than ever," Plenkovic said via video link.
The current crises must not lead to isolationism in the international community but motivate readiness for cooperation in the spirit of solidarity and mutual support, and no other organization is better placed than the United Nations for global delivery of the goals of international cooperation, he said.
That is why "we need a United Nations fit for the 21st century," Plenkovic said, calling for a reform of UN, including its founding document, the UN Charter, as well as of the Security Council, the most powerful body in the UN in which relations reflect the situation at the end of World War II.
"Our organization has to maintain its core values and principles on which it has been founded but it must also reflect the realities and needs of our times," he added.
Critics often call out the UN for allegedly irrational spending, slowness to act, failure to implement its decisions, and bias in adopting them.
The organization's budget last year lacked 768 million of a total of 2.85 billion US dollars because 51 countries did not meet their financial obligations, including Brazil and the USA, Reuters has reported.
Experts underline that the financial problems are a symptom of a broader crisis of confidence in that institution.
Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina Croats
Apart from going down in history as a year of crises, 2020 is also a year of anniversaries - the 75th anniversary of the UN and the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the Dayton-Paris Peace Agreement, which put an end to the "bloodiest war in Europe since the Second World War," said the Croatian PM.
Meanwhile, this part of Europe "has profoundly changed for the better but some problems still prevail and merit our full attention".
Croatia believes that the anniversary of the Dayton peace agreement should be used to reflect on its achievements as well as the contemporary situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Plenkovic, calling for full equality for Croats as a constituent people in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as for the adoption of appropriate election law to prevent electoral engineering.
Plenkovic recalled the Zagreb Summit of 20 years ago and the second edition of that event, held this year online during Croatia's EU presidency, as well as the country's unequivocal support for the European perspective of Western Balkan countries.
Looking back, much has been achieved, much has changed for the better. Looking ahead, sincere reconciliation is essential to regional stability. It can be built only on truth and grounded in facts, in conjunction with finding all the remaining missing persons and rendering justice for all victims, he said.
Plenkovic also stressed in his address that he was proud that for the first time ever Croatia has a candidate for a judge at the International Court of Justice - an international law professor and vice-dean for international cooperation of the Zagreb University Faculty of Law, Maja Sersic.
"Besides her professional qualities, we believe that her election would also be important for achieving a better gender balance and fairer participation of states within the Court's composition."
Plenkovic also recalled that Croatia was dealing with the consequences of a disastrous earthquake that hit Zagreb in March and thanked world leaders for sending messages of support and offer assistance.
Vaccine for all and protection of the planet
Plenkovic welcomed the UN's resolution on a "Comprehensive and Coordinated Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic" and said that "it clearly demonstrates the need for a global joint approach in addressing the impact and consequences of the pandemic."
"The vaccine must be available to as many as possible and we should spare no effort to make it so," he said.
He also spoke about "the perils of global climate change, which will be the challenge of this century."
He said that world leaders must not ignore the fact that "the past five years hold the highest record for global ocean temperatures", noting that "the oceans play a central role in regulating the Earth's climate."
"Ocean plastic pollution is also unfolding at an alarming rate," he added.
"If we do not act now, the damage (to our planet) will become irreparable," he said.
"Let us, therefore, unite as nations and assume our responsibility to create a healthier, equal, and more sustainable world for the generations to come," Plenkovic said.
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.
Istria and Varazdin on Belgium's Green List
September 26, 2020 - The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has published a new list of countries by zones/colors according to the epidemiological situation. Istria and Varazdin are now on the green list.
HRTurizam reports that it is important to emphasize precisely the regional approach to travel restrictions, which in Croatia tourism entrepreneurs have been fighting for since the beginning of the COVID crisis, and the European Commission's proposal is on that path.
Thanks to this approach, although most of Croatia is still in the red zone, according to the newly updated list - Istria and Varazdin are on the "green" list, thus enabling Belgian tourists to travel to these two regions.
Namely, the European Commission presented a proposal for Recommendations on a coordinated approach to restrictions on free movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the proposal identifies four main areas where close cooperation between the Member States is needed:
- common criteria and thresholds for the Member States to introduce travel restrictions
- mapping common criteria with an agreed color code
- a common framework for measures applicable to travelers from high-risk areas
- clearly and timely informing the public about all restrictions
Member States should provide data on new cases to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control on a weekly basis and should also provide data for the regional level to ensure that measures can be targeted only in areas where it is absolutely necessary.
Recall, on Wednesday, Germany added regions from 11 European countries to the list of high-risk areas, including Lika-Senj County, rejecting the last hope of reviving tourism at a time when many countries are threatened by a second wave of coronavirus.
The Robert Koch Institute list includes major tourist destinations such as the French regions of Center-Val de Loire, Brittany and Normandy, Lika-Senj County in Croatia, and the Notranjsko-kraška region in Slovenia.
The list also includes the capitals of Ireland, Portugal, and Denmark, the Dutch province of Utrecht, the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, most of the Czech Republic, the county of Gyor in western Hungary, and Romania's Covasna.
The inclusion in the list of risk areas usually follows when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes recommendations against necessary trips to the region in question.
Germany warns against traveling to regions in the European Union where more than 50 are infected per 100,000 people per week.
Due to the spread of the epidemic, Germany has so far included Dubrovnik-Neretva, Požega-Slavonia, Šibenik-Knin, Split-Dalmatia, Brod-Posavina, Virovitica-Podravina, and Zadar counties on the list of epidemiologically risky areas in Croatia.
Declaring an area risky means that those returning from vacation must be tested for coronavirus and remain in self-isolation until they receive a negative test result.
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
Final Criteria Met: Croatians Don't Need A Visa For The USA From 2021
September 26, 2020 - A 20-year-old diplomatic and business stumbling block has finally been resolved - Croatians don't need a visa for the USA from 2021
With a considerable amount of the country's diaspora living in English-speaking countries, the issue of visa requirement to enter the USA has been of significant interest to Croatians for years. Discussions have been ongoing since the late 1990s, complicated by the fact Croatian passports can be issued in a different country altogether - Bosnia and Herzegovina. But now, the wait is finally over - Croatians don't need a visa for the USA from 2021.
As detailed in Total Croatia News on 7th September, the final hurdle for the removal of visa requirements was the issuing of 2000 further visas before the end of this month. Sources inside the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have revealed this criterion has now been met and thus the annual level of rejected applications will be less than 3%. This was the bar set by the USA to the Croatian state.
Meeting this figure was complicated by the decrease in travel due to the ongoing pandemic. Therefore, with full disclosure to their American counterparts, sections of the Croatian government set about orchestrating the required number of applications. They enlisted the help of the Croatian business community and members within it who were sure to submit successful applications.
Next Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will arrive in Croatia. Final details for the abolition of visas will be discussed between his accompanying team and that of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman and Minister of Defense Mario Banožić, who will meet him in Dubrovnik. The official announcement that Croatians don't need a visa for the USA from 2021 could potentially come as soon as the end of the US Secretary of State's visit.
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
VIDEO: New BMW M3 Leaves Old Metropolis Warehouses in Rijeka Port!
September 26, 2020 - The new BMW M3 leaves the old Metropolis warehouses in Rijeka Port, which shows that the old abandoned factory buildings and halls in Croatia are an increasingly popular location for shooting promo films from international companies, reports Jutarnji.hr.
The island of Pag, with its unique landscapes through which the state road D106 passes, has, in the last ten years, turned into an unavoidable location and a perfect backdrop for shooting countless new car models. Manufacturers such as Mercedes, Porsche, Bentley, BMW, Honda, or Lexus shot many new models on the longest Croatian island, but not only Pag is all that Croatia has to offer.
The Adriatic Highway and, for example, the Road Majstorska on Velebit are increasingly popular places for recording promotional material not only for cars but also for motorcycles, such as the new Ducati Multistrada. We should not forget the inevitable Dubrovnik and its surroundings, Zadar or Rijeka, which was already a frequent choice of filmmakers: a redesigned version of the previous generation Skoda Octavia and Honda NSX were shot at locations in the Croatian port city.
However, the trends are obviously changing, so the old abandoned factory buildings and halls in Croatia are becoming increasingly popular as locations for shooting promotional films of premium international manufacturers.
As a reminder, photos and video for the new BMW X2 three years ago toured the world from the old Croatian aluminum factory in Lozovac and the surrounding roads of the Sibenik hinterland. Now a similar location has been chosen by BMW's M department to shoot a promo film for the new M3: the Port of Rijeka, and the rush between warehouses was filmed at the Metropolis complex, specifically at Orlando Pier and Budapest Pier.
The "Metropolis" complex is a protected cultural asset within the port area from the beginning of the 20th century, a unique historical complex of five port warehouses that line two rows along the seashore. It was built in the historicist style with decorations of the Hungarian Art Nouveau, which makes them unique globally, and this location should be converted into a Science and Technology Park in the future. Interestingly, Mercedes chose the same location last year to shoot a promo film for the electric model EQC. We can freely conclude that now even the most controversial BMW M3 ever leaves the world from the old port warehouses of Rijeka.
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.
Croatian Post Releases New Commemorative Stamps with Legends of Croatian Music
September 26, 2020 - Croatian Post releases new commemorative stamps from the "Croatian Music" series on September 28, 2020.
As the Croatian Post website states, the motifs on the stamps show reproductions of the most famous editions of gramophone records by Dino Dvornik, Oliver Dragojević and Tomo Bebić. The authors of the commemorative postage stamps are Ivana Vučić and Tomislav-Jurica Kaćunić, designers from Zagreb. The nominal value of the stamp is the same for each motif and amounts to HRK 10.00. The stamps were printed in a circulation of 100,000 copies per motif, of which 1,000 sheets were in the corresponding numbered cases. The commemorative stamps were printed in sheets with four self-adhesive stamps, and the Croatian Post also issued a commemorative First Day Cover (FDC). Round arches imitate a gramophone record.
Dino Dvornik's musical legacy (August 20, 1964 - September 7, 2008), as well as his private and entertainment life, which are permanently intertwined, testify to the enormous talent and eruptive music in which, regardless of the scale of inspiration, is always furious rhythm and passion. It was obvious when he released his debut album in 1989, which gave the megahit "Zašto praviš slona od mene", one of the biggest - but also the best - hits from the late eighties. With it, Dino announced that funk is neither a teenage infection nor a fashionable trend, but a pure and unadulterated passion. This was also shown by the following projects, such as the album Kreativni nered, released a year later, with exceptional compositions such as "Udri jače manijače", which is at the very top of the Croatian songbook of the 1990s.
Croatian Post
If the war years deprived him of huge circulations and sold-out tours, they certainly did not affect his creativity. On the album Priroda i društvo, released in 1993, he stepped towards more serious topics, but also showed that he is equally capable of composing flawless R'n'B-pop stylizations and successfully and pioneeringly experimenting with techno/house rhythms, which are almost ubiquitous on the album. At a time when the domestic scene was leaning towards dance, in 1995 he released Africa, one of the best, but also the most influential numbers of Croatian music in the 1990s, and two years later the exceptional album Enfant Terrible. He remained on the trail of funk until the end and the album Pandora's Box, which was released posthumously immediately after the premature departure of the Croatian uncrowned "king of funk".
Oliver Dragojević (December 7, 1947 - July 29, 2018) is a singer who, just like Frank Sinatra, deserved to be called "The Voice". Also known as the "cosmic Dalmatian", the father, son, and holy spirit of Dalmatian song and "southern consolation", which he long ago patented with his emotional vocal "rasp", Oliver was certainly the best singer among musicians and the best musician among singers. A multi-instrumentalist and a great keyboardist in his long career, he has gone from rock and pop to pop music and jazzy styles. Giving his voice and soul to the numerous eternal melodies of the Split Festival written by Zdenko Runjić, in the 1990s he opened a new lucrative period and career with "Cesarica" by collaborating with many young composers.
Croatian Post
While in the seventies and eighties he was a cult "Dalmatian singer" with anthems and anthological compositions such as "Galeb", "Malinkonija", "Oprosti mi pape", "Skalinade", "Karoce", "Ništa nova", "Stine" and others, and with a range far greater than the regional borders, in the 1990s and the new millennium, he became the biggest and brightest star (not only) of the Croatian scene. Moreover, great ballads typical in the 2000s were given a unique emotional timbre by collaborating successfully with composers and musicians from other genre niches whom - just like Ray Charles, Wonder or Cocciante - he experienced as brothers in the same passion, inspiration and musical inclinations. The result is songs that, presented at the world's most important concert addresses, make the grand finale of a brilliant career of a singer (and musician) who left eternal melodies "until the end of time" with the unbearable ease of talent and musicality. As an epitaph and as a will.
Toma Bebić (1939 - February 1990), aphorist, messy poet, goatherd, a stubborn advocate of every alternative, even the author of picture books and books of twisted aphorisms, became a legend during his lifetime. Admittedly, after his untimely death, he was left with a small discographic opus, but the influence of his key compositions was much, much greater. No wonder because Toma and his most famous songs like "Kaleta", "Nevera", "Oya Noya", Ča smo na ovom svitu", "Leute moj", "Marčeline" and others became almost anthems of both traditionalists and supporters of the festival alternative from Split's Prokurative. Unfortunately, partly due to his own negligence, and partly paying a tribute to "provinciality", Toma's discography is generally weaker than the value of the songs themselves and exceptional concert performances.
Croatian Post
His compositions were mostly "Dalmatian chansons" with special dedications to the homeland, but before and after all they spoke about everyday situations and "little people", marginals with whom - as a bohemian and an anarchist - he got along best. Singing in a hoarse and suggestive voice, they flashed on Oya Noya's 1980 album, with the singer-songwriter hits "Nevera", "Leute moj", "Marčelina", "Tu-tu auto, vrag ti piz… odnija", "Za moj raj pitajte mene "... confirming Bebić's role as a pop star in the absolute deviation from the clothing of the then Split-festival hit songs. Permanently interesting as a "messy" phenomenon of "Split studies" and a distinctive chansonnier, Toma was and remains a cult figure not only of the Split but also of the Croatian music scene.
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.
Traditional Slavonian and Baranya Food Cooked on Ban Jelacic Square
September 26, 2020 - If you are a fan of a bit spicy, and a dish rich with various meat, you should try traditional Slavonian and Baranya food cooked on Ban Jelacic square.
And if you are not, don't worry! As Vecernji.hr reports, there will be many tastes of Slavonia and Baranya like beans with sausages and bacon and sauerkraut, Kulen, cheese, Rakija, honey, cakes...
Homemade desserts prepared according to traditional family recipes can be tasted from 8 am to 8 pm on Jelacic Square as part of the Days of Slavonia in Zagreb, opened for the seventh time, and will run through Tuesday. The products were exhibited by 75 members of the Association of Veterans of Pannonia, which organizes the event.
"Exhibitors come from all over Croatia, but the emphasis is on Slavonian and Baranja products. There would be more stands, but we had to respect epidemiological measures, ie, the prescribed distance of one and a half meters that must be between them," explains the secretary of the association Nenad Kracun.
Visitors to the Square also have the opportunity to learn how to make Slavonian gold embroidery, ie, the technique of making decorations with a special thread. "And the trade of Ruza Prelcec from Valpovo is in charge of that," says Kracun.
Cobanac, he adds, is prepared by theirs, as they call him from miles away, Slavonian Nadalina, ie, chef, defender, and member of the 5th Guards Brigade Antun Tićac. For the dessert, Family Farm Madjarica from Nova Gradiska is in charge.
Baranya Food | Photo by Romulic and Stojcic
The scent of dried meat products attracts people to its stands, for example, the Veterans' Cooperative Donji Grad from Osijek and the craft of Pava Baotic from Bosnjak, and the family farm Delic from Gornji Tucepi exhibits cosmetics and soaps made from olive oil. And speaking of liquid gold, the Sinkovic oil mill also exhibited a pumpkin version that interests visitors every year. Branimir and Ksenija Knez from Koprivnica offer, among other things, their famous fruit Rakija, and liqueurs made from chokeberry, walnut, carob, fig, cherry, and hazelnut are wildly popular.
From the farm in Siskovci near Vinkovci, where they have hundreds of hives, the Knežević family brought flower, forest, acacia, and chestnut honey, and bee products are also presented by the Vrljic family farm from Slavonski Brod. In addition to various types of honey, their balms and creams are also on offer.
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
Only One Month to Go Before 22nd Biograd Boat Show Begins
As Morski writes on the 25th of September, 2020, more than 140 exhibitors have registered their participation in this year's Biograd Boat Show. This fact showcases the resilience of the nautical industry and instils optimism in these challenging business times. As we get closer to the opening, we can expect that many applications will be confirmed.
The Biograd Boat Show, organised and hosted by Ilirija d.d., a tourist company from Biograd na Moru near Zadar, will adapt its edition this year to these new and unprecedented circumstances. In order to respect the epidemiological measures of maintaining social distance, the largest fair of vessels in Central Europe will be held one day longer, over a total of five days in the period from the 21st to the 25th of October in Marina Kornati, Biograd na Moru. Since the fair is open and at sea, the fresh air and open spaces provide a safer environment.
The three largest exhibitors will exhibit at the Biograd Boat Show with a total of 28 vessels with an average length of more than 11 metres. So far, the largest reported vessel to be exhibited is the Elling E6, which is 20 metres long. Ilirija d.d. has received the full support of the Zadar County Civil Civil Protection Headquarters for the Biograd Boat Show and continues to plan events in accordance with the prescribed measures to ensure the safety of exhibitors and visitors alike.
In order to meet the international and national health and safety criteriam Ilirija d.d. will monitor the current situation very carefully and prepares for the introduction of measures intended for public safety, ie the safety of exhibitors and visitors against the spread of the new coronavirus. As a golden member of IFBSO, the International Federation of Boat Show Organisers, Ilirija d.d. will cooperate with its colleagues in the adoption of new safety measures and similar standards in the organisation of the fair.
In the past twenty-one years, the Biograd Boat Show has established itself as a top nautical event, the largest boat fair in Central Europe and an unavoidable nautical tourism event in Croatia, where all its key segments gather in one place. Aware of the role and importance of the Biograd Boat Show for the nautical industry and tourism, the fair will showcase its novelties in October and will certainly speed up and facilitate B2B networking for the preparation of the business year 2021.
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
Ludbreg Tourism: Town to Become Cycling and Outdoor Activity Centre?
As Novac/Martina Hrupic writes on the 25th of September, 2020, Ludbreg is well known for being the centre of the world, but now it wants to become a centre for Croatian outdoor tourism. It presented this ambition at the recently held "Days of cycling tourism 2020." Is Ludbreg tourism about to get a spring in its step?
It was at this event that six new bicycle paths in Ludbreg and its surroundings were presented, from the simple and shorter ones to the long, technically and physically demanding ones. In the foreseeable future, hiking trails, which will also be of different profiles, will be presented to the public, and then in the spring, canoeing and kayaking options in the Ludbreg area will also be a possibility.
The aforementioned conference dedicated to cycling tourism as a sustainable, increasingly popular and valuable branch of the tourism industry is a project launched by the Varazdin company Spot through its cycling tourism brand "Trail - Full Cycling Experience", specialising in the development of innovative and sustainable tourism content.
The conference brought together representatives of institutions, ministries, tourist boards, agencies, providers of services and related products and experts in promotion, marketing and branding, as well as foreign entities that work to reveal Croatia to the European cycling market.
Ludbreg's Mayor, Dubravko Bilic explained that cycling tourism is actually the backbone of the idea of Ludbreg tourism in the sense of it becoming an outdoor destination. Cyclotourists, he claims, are excellent tourists, and cycling tourism is the fastest growing tourist branch.
''Days of cycling tourism are important not only for us but for all destinations. Cyclists, if they come from nearby areas, come by bike, but if they come from afar, they come by car, not by plane, so in that sense there isn't much impact caused by this crisis, which is likely to happen in the future. These are people who like to get tired, but also to relax, we want to take a bite into that part of the tourist cake, and Cycling Days are an event that helped us go in that direction,'' explained Bilic.
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
Minister Zdravko Maric: Coronavirus Crisis Will Pass, One Problem Remains
As Novac writes on the 25th of September, 2020, a new round of tax reforms with changes that should take effect early next year will bring a reduction in corporate income tax rates, but a great opportunity for them is to withdraw money from European Union funds, said Finance Minister Zdravko Maric on Friday.
Ahead of the meeting on tax changes, which is usually organised at this time of year in the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), Minister Zdravko Maric said that he was carrying a "new message of tax relief" in the form of reducing income tax rates, noting that this also opens up a great opportunity for the use of European Union funds designed to help the economy fight the consequences of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
''What we're offering in the fifth round of reforms is the lowering of the income tax rate, I think that's more than enough, but I certainly want to hear what you want in terms of parafiscal levies and other burdens,'' said Minister Zdravko Maric, adding that it turned out that lowering tax rates ultimately brings in more to the state budget, but that there's a lower limit and as such it can't just be reduced indefinitely. He warned that the coronavirus crisis will pass, but that we'll be left with a demographic problem that will remain a burning issue.
According to earlier announcements, in the new round of tax reforms, income tax rates would be reduced from 36 percent to 30 percent and from 24 to 20 percent at the beginning of next year. There are also plans to reduce the corporate income tax rate from 12 down to 10 percent, for small and medium-sized companies, ie for all enterprises with an annual income of up to 7.5 million kuna.
Regarding the reduction of VAT rates on all food, Minister Zdravko Maric reiterated that this is part of the government's programme, as is the abolition of property sales/transfer tax, but that the government hasn't committed to any specific date when these measures should take effect.
HGK President Luka Burilovic said that businessmen were "extremely interested" in any tax relief.
He announced that he would ask Minister Zdravko Maric for measures to provide additional liquidity, especially over the next six months, as well as to speed up the procedures dealt with by HAMAG-BICRO in HBOR.
The head of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce also announced talks with the Ministry of Labour and trade unions on amendments to the Labour Law which will start next week. That law, he said, is outdated, and businessmen believe it should be more flexible. Flexibility, as he pointed out, shouldn't be feared by good workers.
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
Can Croatian Government Afford to Spend More Thanks to EU Cash?
As Novac writes on the 25th of September, 2020, in addition to Croatian economic recovery, the withdrawal of money from European Union funds, including the new New Generation instrument, will have a decisive impact on budget movements, not only next year, but throughout the projected period until 2023. Will EU cash be the saviour in this crisis situation? Probably.
The total budget revenues, as stated in the guidelines for drafting the budget presented by the Minister of Finance Zdravko Maric, will amount to 147.1 billion kuna next year, which is 25 billion kuna more than this year. Compared to back in 2019, they increased by seven billion kuna. Revenues from aid are growing the most, and they're mostly related to EU cash: they will amount to 25.1 billion kuna, 7 billion kuna more than this year, and compared to 2019, they will increase by as much as 10.3 billion kuna. Of the other revenues, the level from last year, also known as the pre-crisis year, should almost reach the revenues from the VAT, with a growth of 23.9 percent and will amount to 54.1 billion kuna, only 700 million kuna less than last year.
Mainly due to the increased withdrawal of money from EU funds and the availability of that EU cash, the Croatian Government will be able to afford an increase in expenditures of 10.4 billion kuna (7.1 percent), so it will amount to a total of 157.6 billion kuna. Expenditures for material things will grow the most, by 16.6 percent or 2.3 billion kuna, and most of this increase will be financed from EU cash. For these needs, 9.1 billion kuna will be withdrawn, 1.8 billion kuna more than this year, and it will be used for "repairing the damage caused by the Zagreb earthquake and on material expenditures in state-owned health care institutions", as well as on other projects and activities within the Competitiveness and Cohesion Operational Programme.
Another important expense for the state budget is the compensation of revenues to local units due to the reduction of income tax. The government has earmarked 2.2 billion kuna for this purpose. A total of 33.6 billion kuna will be spent on budget aid next year, which is 6.5 billion kuna more than this year. In addition to assistance to local units, this increase includes additional allocations for contributions to the EU budget, then equalisation funds for decentralised county functions, as well as expenditures for employees, and it will increase by 377.7 million kuna when compared to 2020.
When it comes to staff expenditures, the government is clearly counting on successful negotiations with the unions. These expenditures are planned in the amount of 23.6 billion kuna, which is 1.3 billion kuna more than this year.
Expenditures for pensions, as a result of regular adjustment, will increase by 1.2 billion kuna, and social assistance funds will increase by 407.5 million kuna.
Having in mind the experience from the past few years, which shows that the withdrawal of EU cash is significantly less than planned in the end, the question arises as to how realistic it is to expect that the government will manage to achieve these rather ambitious announcements in 2021. Danijel Nestic from the Institute of Economics says that there is indeed a systemic problem in budget planning and that revenues from European Union funds are constantly overestimated.
''As these revenues are lower than planned in the end, the expenditures for which they're planned are also reduced. This doesn't affect the increase of the deficit, which is certainly very important for the Ministry of Finance, but the fact is that better planning is necessary in case of withdrawal of EU cash,'' explained Nestic, adding that he isn't ruling out the possibility that the planning for such things has been improved.
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
