Croatian hospitality facilities, well, some of them at least, are getting a bit political in the run up to the elections. Some rather interesting and original approaches are being used and one of them is particularly clever.

The elections are rapidly approaching in Croatia and as with each and every time there is an election or indeed political event of any kind, numerous issues that have been left to linger in the background to rot get dragged back to the forefront in a flurry of pre-election promises that nobody ever truly expects to be fulfilled. VAT is one burning issue that bothers everyone, and yet nobody really wants to tackle it.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 24th of June, 2020, if you happen to find yourself sitting down to drink some coffee in Kostrena's Mosquito bar with its beautiful sea view, you will also be able to read an unusual message written by the owner of the facility at the bottom of your bill.

"PP and the highest VAT in Europe are calculated [and included] in the price. Spain and Italy 10, Hungary 5, Greece 13, and France and Slovenia 6 percent. Let's go to the polls and stop the tax repression of the state that exists in order to provide privileges for the eligible," the strong and clear message against Croatia's extortionate VAT reads.

The owner of this particular Croatian hospitality facility explained to Morski.hr precisely what prompted him to make such an interesting move to encourage citizens to go to the polls.

"It was simply because many people weren't aware of the facts at all. If there is the VAT level I mentioned exists in countries which rely on tourism and have a few hundred million inhabitants, how are we any different, and yet we're promoting ourselves as a tourist country? There were many people in the hospitality sector who worked while the VAT on catering services was 13 percent and also when they raised it to 25 percent, and then many put their stores up for sale because their businesses sadly became unprofitable. The government only went out to meet the hotel lobby and the restaurants managed to receive a reduction down to 13 percent VAT on food services,'' said Miro Juraj, the owner of the Mosquito bar in Kostrena.

He points out that this is his way of encouraging people to go to the polls because elections, he says, are the only place where some things can be made to change.

"Everyone who complains that coffee is too expensive for them, should know that every third employee is a state employee, that's how much money is given to the state," concluded Juraj.

For more on Croatian hospitality facilities, follow our lifestyle page.

Brits, much like other sun deprived Northern Europeans, are getting itchy feet in their desperation for a getaway and a bit of vitamin D. As Croatia's epidemiological picture is so favourable, more talks are underway which could provide a much needed boost to Croatian tourism this year.

Media updates from UK (June 27)

Summer holiday air bridges: Government confirms ‘traffic light system’ to make international travel easier for Britons in July

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 24th of June, 2020, British ministers are in talks with the leaders of six other European countries to establish ''air bridges'' for British tourists looking to spend their holidays abroad, the Guardian has learned. The British, among others, are negotiating with Croatia.

The key to the story is to allow tourists from the United Kingdom to come to countries with a low prevalence of coronavirus infections and be able to return home without having to go into self-isolation or quarantine.

In addition to Croatia, British ministers are negotiating with Spain, Italy, Greece, France and Turkey, and the possibility of an agreement with Germany and Austria is being discussed. In Britain, they hope that the negotiations will be completed by Monday, when the United Kingdom, otherwise the worst affected country in Europe, is set to announce a new set of mitigation measures.

A source from the British Government told the Guardian that when they were compiling the list of countries, they only looked at the percentage of infection per 100,000 inhabitants. Australia, for example, was also considered, but in the end the choice fell only on the Mediterranean countries which have always been a traditional favourite for British holiday makers due to their close proximity and being on the same continent.

''Air bridges will be strictly monitored and this plan is a priority for the British Government at the moment, there's no doubt about it,'' a source from the British Government told the Guardian.

However, the popular British newspaper warns that the European Commission (EC) said a few months ago that the opening of such corridors could be subject to discrimination and that the rules must be the same for all countries that have a similar epidemiological situation.

In any case, the British choice eventually fell on the Mediterranean countries, and the reason is more than clear - overseas destinations require transfers in countries where the epidemiological situation is much more serious.

''There was talk about Singapore and Bermuda, but in the end the decision was made to focus on here in Europe,'' it was claimed.

For now, it is known that this idea is strongly supported by Transport Minister Grant Shapps, who spoke extensively about passenger corridors last week.

''We've been working for some time on establishing 'air bridges' or, more precisely, passenger corridors,'' he said at a press conference held in Downing Street, and his deputy, Jim McMahon, publicly said that the rule of 14 days quarantine upon return must be abolished, according to Jutarnji list.

For more on Croatian tourism, follow our travel page.

As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 24th of June, 2020, Croatian Telecom (Hrvatski Telekom) has contracted four years of exclusivity with Ericsson Nikola Tesla to build its future 5G network.

Currently, not all of the preconditions have been created for construction, not only in the form of permits but also free frequencies and the spread of devices that could support the new network. Alas, construction is expected to begin next year, when telecommunications regulator Hakom has announced a tender for 5G.

The value of the contract has not yet been announced. Kostas Nebis, President of the Management Board of Croatian Telecom, has emphasised that this is the first 5G contract in the Republic of Croatia and that Ericsson NT has become the exclusive supplier of the radio part of the mobile network until the year 2024.

"Cooperation with ENT is the latest example of our support to the economy and society, by which we're continuing to invest in the network and we're connecting everything in Croatia with the possibilities of digitalisation," said Nebis.

He added that they are continuing their cooperation on the modernisation of the radio part of the network. In the last two years, Croatian Telecom has directed the whole part towards the introduction of the 5G standard. In addition to the modernisation of the mobile network, they have worked on pilot projects for 5G in the frequency band 3.5GHz to 100 MHz on Krk, Samobor and in the City of Zagreb.

As part of the pilot project, the operator achieved data transfer speeds of 1Gbps in downloading data from the network and 58.2 Mbps in sending data to the network. Boris Drilo of Croatian Telecom stated back in February this year that their mobile infrastructure is now fully modernised and ready for the implementation of 5G.

Gordana Kovacevic, President of the Management Board of Ericsson NT, says that she is extremely pleased that after the first demonstration of 5G technology two years ago, they have now finalised it all by signing the first 5G contract here in Croatia.

"Ericsson has so far launched forty 5G networks on four continents, and I'm proud that as many as 1,500 of our 3,200 employees in Croatia are making a significant contribution to the development of new 5G network functionality within Ericsson's global R&D community," concluded Kovacevic.

For more on Croatian Telecom and 5G in Croatia, follow our lifestyle page.

ZAGREB, June 24, 2020 - Those working with refugees and migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina, close to the Croatian border, have become accustomed to seeing shocking scenes. People are frequently forced back across the border, beaten, stripped, having had their documents burned, or having had dogs set on them.

But men returning with orange crosses spray-painted on their heads or brutally beaten and smeared with food represented a new, dark, low, read an article in EUobserver.

The incidents, originally documented by local NGOs and Amnesty International, and recently reported by The Guardian and EUobserver, were confirmed by various international humanitarian organisations supporting refugees and migrants in the camps in Una-Sana Canton near the Croatian border, reads the article on the independent news portal covering the EU.

"The pictures are chilling; the lack of an EU response even more so," says the author of the article in EUobserver, stressing that impunity is the norm at the border and that reports of violence by Croatian police continue to go unchecked.

"The humiliation of people seeking safety in Europe by painting crosses on their heads is just the latest in a long list of incidents, and a symptom of a wider trend of violent pushbacks and other severe human rights violations taking place at the EU's external borders, which we also observe in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Greece.

"The failure of EU institutions to call out individual member states for their unlawful behaviour has allowed these practices to flourish and encouraged further heavy-handed deterrence tactics by some countries.

"Despite lockdowns across Europe due to the Covid-19 pandemic, pushbacks from Croatia into Bosnia and Herzegovina continued in early 2020, with NGO monitors recording over 1,600 recorded incidents of migrants being pushed back in April alone.

"Men, women, teenagers, and entire families have been assaulted, physically abused, subjected to arbitrary detention, and their belongings destroyed.

"Refugees and migrants have consistently reported how police stripped them of their clothes and shoes and forced them to walk for kilometers in bad weather back to the Bosnian border.

"These are not isolated events. The sheer number of cases and consistency of allegations point to a systematic and deliberate policy on the part of the Croatian authorities," says EUobserver.

Croatian authorities inevitably deny incidents

Simultaneously, there have been cases of hate speech and intolerance towards refugees and migrants across the region - including attempts to portray them as the main carriers of coronavirus and a threat to public health.

The Schengen border code, which sets out rules on the control of EU borders, explicitly states that border checks should be carried out with full respect for human dignity.

Yet, the European Commission's silence over the distressing events at Croatia's borders is deafening, says EUobserver.

There has been no public denunciation, no call for the Croatian government to properly investigate the evidence or serious attempt to engage in independent monitoring, EUobserver says, adding that repeated calls by the European Parliament to investigate the abuses have been met by a tepid response, weakly pointing at difficulties in verifying claims and Croatian authorities' inevitable denial of any wrongdoing.

"Where does the EU draw the line if these widespread abuses can continue with impunity?" EUobserver wonders, adding that credible reports of hundreds of incidents documenting unlawful practices and violence at the EU's external borders should prompt effective independent monitoring, transparent investigations, and accountability for blatant breaches of EU law.

"If the European Commission is seriously committed to its fundamental values, it is time that it puts words into practice and decisively condemns unlawful returns and violence at its external borders and demands that perpetrators of such illegal acts are held to account," the article concludes.

ZAGREB, June 24, 2020 - Health Minister Vili Beros said in Split on Wednesday that 92% of the newly infected people with COVID-19 are younger than 60 and that they do not have clinical symptoms, which is an indirect indicator that the virus has mutated.

"I read a scientific article about that but we won't speculate as the virus is with us and we are aware that we have to be responsible and cautious," Beros said.

Responding to questions from reporters, Beros said that all tourists who fall ill would be taken care of in health institutions, while those not exhibiting symptoms would need to self-isolate. That is why it has been suggested that quarantine areas be set up to accommodate such tourists, he added.

"Given that most of them will be in good condition, bilateral talks are being held with countries tourists are coming from to arrange their repatriation. I don't think that any country will prevent the return of its own citizens as long as they are ordered to self-isolate. We are also developing additional capacities for testing everyone in order to remove any doubt of them being positive or not," Beros said.

Reporters were interested whether any charges would be laid in the wake of the Adria Tour tennis tournament in Zadar where the first case was registered on Sunday when Bulgarian tennis player Grigor Dimitrov admitted that he was infected with the novel coronavirus.

Beros said that repressive measures were not in his remit but that he appeals to all organisers of similar events to ensure consistent observance of physical distancing, hygiene, and other recommendations.

Beros confirmed that no new cases had been registered in Split-Dalmatia or Istria counties and that there were fewer new cases in Croatia today than yesterday.

ZAGREB, June 24, 2020 - The Constitutional Court has ruled that former prime minister Ivo Sanader did not have his rights violated by being placed in investigative custody after a non-final ruling in the INA-MOL case, even though he was already behind bars after a ruling in the Planinska case became final.

The Constitutional Court thus dismissed Sanader's complaint about the detention order which was issued after in late 2019 he was found guilty of taking €10 million in bribes from the CEO of the Hungarian energy group MOL, Zsolt Hernadi.

In addition to six years in prison, he was also sentenced to so-called obligatory investigative detention which is given for non-final sentences longer than five years.

Sanader first appealed to the Supreme Court, which found that investigative detention in the INA-MOL case should begin after he served his six-year prison term in the Planinska case.

ZAGREB, June 24, 2020 - Leader of the Social Democratic Party Davor Bernardic, who is at the helm of the Restart coalition, said on Wednesday that the coalition's task was to further decentralise Croatia and enable Istria, known for its tolerance and inclusiveness, to develop even faster.

Only investments can change the economic structure

He added that for that reason one of the first measures the Restart coalition would put in place would be for a zero tax rate on wages of up to HRK 5,000 so that workers could immediately receive HRK 300 more in their monthly wages.

The SDP-led government would also immediately reduce VAT in hospitality and tourism.

He added that one of the fundamental problems over the past four years was that the government had introduced taxation on investments or reinvested profit which, he said, the Restart coalition would once again abolish because it wanted to attract investments to Croatia "because only investments can change our economy's structure."

National coronavirus crisis management team is a political body

Responding to reporters' questions, Bernardic said that the national coronavirus crisis management team's likely decision to change the border regime with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro was belated as shown by "the escalation of the corona crisis."

"It's obvious that the crisis management team is in a fact a 'political team' because its key leaders are on HDZ's election slates. That is not good given that because of the election, they do not have time to deal with the coronavirus which is why it has spread.

"Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic should go into self-isolation. However, it is obvious that one set of rules applies to citizens and another to the prime minister and HDZ members. That is an injustice that citizens feel," said Bernardic.