ZAGREB, May 28, 2020 - Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Marko Pavic said on Thursday that soon Croatia would apply to the European Solidarity Fund for the reconstruction of Zagreb after the March 22 earthquake and that it expected to receive over €500 million.

Responding to questions from the press ahead of a cabinet meeting, Pavic said the deadline to apply was June 14 and that he expected Croatia, i.e. the City of Zagreb, to receive over €500 million.

The estimate of the damage will be finished this week and it must be done according to a methodology recognised by the European Commission, Pavic added.

He said a €100 million advance from the ESF was expected this summer, the maximum amount that could be received.

He recalled that a US$ 200 million loan was being arranged with the World Bank for dealing with the effects of the quake and that the government set aside HRK 141 million for urgent repairs.

ZAGREB, May 28, 2020 - President Zoran Milanovic called on citizens on Thursday to vote in the July 5 parliamentary election, saying he was not thinking about the election interests and chances of the ruling HDZ or the opposition SDP and that he did not wish to influence that.

"I call on everyone to go to the polls, and it's unbelievable how a well-meaning and defensive statement by me has prompted several analysts to react. My message is 'vote', and I'll see, because I don't want any bias to be ascribed to my activity," Milanovic told reporters, explaining an earlier statement that he did not know if he would vote at all.

He said this was not his message but his stance. "I'm not thinking about the SDP's interests and chances in the election, nor the HDZ's, nor would I influence that."

He said the right to vote was a constitutional right, not a duty, and called on citizens to go to the polls to vote, not to invalidate their ballot.

Asked about the business of the INA oil company and recent media claims that oil was being shipped to Hungary for refining, Milanovic said he did not know enough about that.

"In order to have a stand, I need to know a little more. Business reasons have to exist for it to be refined in Rijeka. What those reasons are, I don't know. I don't know the motives of INA's owner, the majority owner being, unfortunately, the Hungarian company MOL. Unfortunately, that was wrong, damaging for Croatia."

The president added that the Rijeka Refinery has to operate.

Last night he met with the military leadership in his office to discuss the situation in the army. Although he did not reveal details of the talks, he said new military aircraft would likely be procured.

"We will probably procure them, I can say with certainty. When the situation calms down a bit. But I will do my best so that it isn't done as it was three years ago, for responsibility to be taken more clearly at one point. That is up to the prime minister. Frankly, there's not much choice here. The US or someone from the West without an indecent proposal."

Asked if Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic were sending him a message by not attending a Croatian army reception in his office, Milanovic said they were sending the message to their voters, not to him.

As for the new date on which Statehood Day is being marked, May 30, he said that date is not really Statehood Day.

"It's a holiday that is being moved by political turbulence so that people won't really know what holiday it is in fact. June 25 is a symbolically important date, it's not a parade. It's the date of the Croatian referendum on independence and leaving Yugoslavia. That date is the common denominator of all Croats. This new date isn't the common denominator. Too many people have dilemmas about it."

ZAGREB, May 28, 2020 - By amending the decision which temporarily banned crossing the border, Croatia will enable the entry of citizens of Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany and Poland, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday.

"According to our comparative analysis of the epidemiological situation, those are the countries with either similar progress as Croatia or the trends are such that we can adopt such a decision and enable the arrival of those countries' citizens during the tourist season, with the appropriate epidemiological recommendations and the special application that has already been made," Plenkovic said at a cabinet meeting.

As the situation improves, the group of countries whose citizens can come to Croatia will expand, he added.

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May 28, 2020 — Austria will open its borders to Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary in mid-June. Croatia, along with Italy, Spain, Greece and Slovenia, is not on the list yet, Jutarnji List reports.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg avoided explaining the conditions and criteria Austria uses when deciding which borders to open. Statements by the Austrian government, led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, that "good coordination" and a "narrowly coordinated approach" would allow a border to open.

Austria’s measures make re-entry into the country difficult. Under the rules, tourists returning to Austria from a holiday in Croatia will have to have a negative test for COVID-19 that is not older than four days or will have to self-isolate which can be interrupted if a taken test in Austria comes back negative.

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Since in Croatia, as in Slovenia, the epidemiological picture is one of the best in Europe, Croats dependent on Austrian guests suspect alternative motives.

Danilo Volmut, owner of the Istriaselect booking site, believes Austrian authorities are deliberately opening borders to some and not others, pursuing a discriminatory policy under the guise preventing a second wave of coronavirus infections.
“When you look at which countries Austria opens to, those are the countries from which they have the largest influx of tourists,” he said. "It is clear that they are trying to attract the largest number of tourists, and at the same time prevent domestic tourists from going to countries where they usually spend their holidays.”

Volmut studied in Austria and knows the language. He has targeted the German and Austrian markets with his booking platform. The Austrian government’s decision will lead to canceled reservations, he said.

“At the moment, they seem to be trying to literally create a barrier towards holiday countries,” Volmut added. “The German tourists we hope for arrive in Croatia mainly via Austria, and could be discouraged if the current measures remain in force, which provides for the quarantine of anyone who comes from, according to them, problematic countries.”

All this could be enough to discourage foreign tourists from even making the trip, especially Austrians and Germans who make up a bulk of Croatia’s visitors.

Last year, Austrians accounted for as much as 10.6 percent of all visitors. The director of the Croatian Tourism Association, Veljko Ostojić, said they represent one of the most important emitting markets, especially now due to the epidemiological situation.

“Austrians are our frequent guests, many of them have real estate here, and we represent the closest Mediterranean to them,” Ostojić said, lambasting Austria’s still-closed border to Croatia. “We believe that there is no reason why traffic between these two countries would not start again as soon as possible.”

The European Commission itself may have preempted Austria’s plans. Its guidelines for reopening borders explicitly cut out room for nations with favorable epidemiological situations. 

Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli is slated to talk to the Austrian Minister of Tourism Elisabeth Köstinger at the end of this week, most likely on Friday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, bearing in mind that Croatia opens its borders on May 29, told Jutarnji that Minister of Foreign Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman is in constant contact with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg.

According to the Croatian National Tourist Board, 12.7 percent of all Austrians who traveled abroad went to Croatia in 2018, making it their second most popular summer destination after Italy.
Given that a good part of them go on vacation by car, Austrians will be especially valuable guests this year, and Croatia could further capitalize on the fact that tourists, given the epidemiological situation, will prefer to choose countries with fewer patients, which gives Croatia an advantage over Italy.

The German government has postponed a debate on lifting travel warnings for European Union countries following protests by politicians from the Christian Social Union.
The parliament was supposed to discuss yesterday the abolition of warnings for travel to the EU, which were introduced in mid-March as a precautionary measure in stopping the spread of COVID-19. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has proposed lifting general warnings and introducing individual guidelines for each of the 31 countries (26 EU member states, the UK, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). This would mean that the borders for countries that adhere to these guidelines would open from 15 June.

The debate was postponed until the next session on June 3, as the CSU fears that border openings and increasing travel opportunities for tourists will lead to a new wave of coronavirus.

All of which could stymie the few tourists Croatia anticipated visiting this year.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 28th of May, 2020, a ranking of the world's top ten pension systems has been published. In light of the impending demographic changes, the fatigue of pension reforms is the last thing Croatia can afford, the analysis concludes. With that being said, just how does the Croatian pension system really level up?

Allianz recently unveiled the first edition of its Global Pension Report, which analyses pension systems from countries around the world using Allianz's very own pension indicator - the Allianz Pension Indicator (API).

The indicator follows a simple logic: it begins with an analysis of demographic and fiscal preconditions, after which it looks at national pension systems based on two crucial dimensions: sustainability and suitability. It is therefore based on three pillars and takes into account a total of thirty different parameters, which receive ratings on a scale of one to seven, with one being the best possible rating and seven being the worst. By summing up all of the subtotals, the API assigns a rating of one to seven to each of the seventy countries analysed, thus providing a detailed and comprehensive overview of many national pension systems.

"In recent years, demographic and pension policies have been overshadowed by other policies, primarily by climate change, and currently the fight against the coronavirus pandemic," said Allianz's chief economist Ludovic Subran.

"But you can't ignore demographic data, given that changes in the demographic picture will soon become a burning issue. Mitigating the impending pension crisis and preserving generational justice and equality are key to building inclusive and resilient societies,'' he added.

Dramatic changes in the demographic picture are most visible in the increase in the share of the economically inactive elderly population. By the time 2050 rolls around, the share of such individuals will grow by a staggering 77 percent to 25 percent, faster than it has in the last seventy years, from 1950 to now. Over the next three decades, many emerging economies will see more that share more than double in size. The best example is China, where the aforementioned share will jump from the current 17 percent up to 44 percent. In the case of industrialised countries, the absolute level of this share is a major cause for concern; for example, in Western Europe alone it stands at 51 percent.

Such developments are also reflected in the first pillar of the API (so-called starting points), which combines demographic changes and the public financial situations (in the sense of there being space for financial action).

Understandably, many African countries with rapid economic development can boast very good ratings according to the API, given that their populations are still young and the public deficit and debt are extremely low. On the other hand, many European countries (such as Italy and Portugal) are among the worst rated countries because their populations are old and their debts are high.

"For many industrialised countries, the old Scottish joke is true: if I want to build a stable pension system, I will certainly not start from here," said the report's author Michaela Grimm.

"And that was before the appearance of the coronavirus pandemic and the new debts that the pandemic brought with it. The legacy of the current crisis will certainly be the need to redouble our efforts to reform our pension systems. We've been left without room for financial action. "

The second pillar of the API is sustainability, ie, measuring how systems respond to demographic changes: are there built-in stabilisers or will the system fall apart when the number of contributors falls and the number of users continues to grow?

In this context, the age limit for acquiring the right to a pension is an important factor. Back in the 1950s, the average 65-year-old resident of Europe could expect to spend about 12.3 years in retirement (and 14.1 years for women). Today, the average life expectancy of a retired 65-year-old is 20.5 years for women and 17.2 years for men. By 2050, life expectancy is expected to jump to 23.1 years for women and 20.2 years for men. Therefore, the ratio of an individual's working life to the time spent in retirement recorded a significant decline. Consequently, countries (such as the Netherlands), which has decided to adjust the retirement age in view of increasing life expectancy in retirement, now have significantly more sustainable pension systems than countries where deferred retirement is still considered somewhat of a taboo theme.

The third pillar of the API assesses the suitability of a pension system, meaning that it works to determine whether a certain pension system provides a suitable standard of living. Among the important factors are the coverage ratio (what the shares of the working age population and the retirement age covered by the pension system actually are), the pension benefit ratio (how much money does the average retiree receive - measured by average income), and the existence of pension insurance based on individual capitalised savings as well as various other sources of income.

Overall, the average rating in the eligibility pillar (3.7) is slightly better than the average rating in the sustainability pillar (4.0), which is a sign that most systems still attach more importance to the well-being of current generations of retirees than future generations of taxpayers and their social security contributions. Leading countries in the eligibility pillar either still have significant state pensions, like Austria or Italy, or strong capitalised savings (Pillar II and III), like New Zealand or the Netherlands.

Pension insurance based on individual capitalised savings is, however, under increasing pressure due to persistently low interest rate conditions. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic further exacerbated this trend by reducing yields.

"In conditions where there are low returns, pension funds and life insurance providers have turned to alternative asset categories," explained Cameron Jovanovic, director of global pension operations at Allianz SE.

"The aforementioned transition to alternative investments enables pension companies to realise an illiquidity premium that is in line with the duration of the portfolio. Another strategy is to get rid of risk instead of chasing returns while the solution to cover the costs of longer-term pension insurance beneficiaries, pension risk transfers, and creative reinsurance become ways to optimise the exposure of pension funds and insurers.''

By combining grades from all three pillars of the API, we get the following results: Sweden, Belgium and Denmark have the best pension systems in the world. However, the Croatian pension system ranked in a rather unimpressive 46th place.

Like many other countries in the immediate region, Croatia is facing a trend of accelerated population aging: by 2050, the share of economically inactive elderly people in the country will rise to 55 percent. In this context, a poor sustainability rating is quite understandable (4.1). The weakness of the Croatian pension system is the age limit for acquiring the right to a pension, which is failing to keep up with the growth of life expectancy; the demographic factor in the formula for calculating pensions could also make the Croatian pension system more stable in this respect.

In terms of eligibility (3.7), the assessment of the Croatian pension system is in line with the global average. Factors that could be worked on to improve the Croatian pension system include coverage-to-benefit ratios, private savings, and employment opportunities for the elderly.

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May 28, 2020 - In May, a total of 39 hotels and 11 campsites were opened in Kvarner, and according to the announcements of the Kvarner Tourist Board, a larger number of accommodation facilities will be opened in June, if the borders continue to be opened and the travel ban lifted.

HRTurizam writes that thanks to the fact that Croatia is at the top of European countries that have kept their epidemiological situation under very good control, and in that way preserved the health image of the country, the planned opening of the borders was started and thus partially enabled the beginning of the summer tourist season.

If we look at the situation within Croatia, the Kvarner region is among the best in the reactions of services that have contributed to the preservation of the epidemiological picture. Our experience, awareness, and centuries-old tradition in health tourism have certainly made a great contribution to the organized implementation of protection measures. Also, by closing their premises and respecting the measures, accommodation and catering facilities have contributed to maintaining a good epidemiological situation and thus are ready for the start of the summer tourist season quicker than others.

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Kvarner Tourist Board has maintained constant communication with domestic and foreign tourist journalists, bloggers and agents. Our main message is #VisitKvarnerTomorrow, which we use together with our local tourist communities from the Kvarner area. We are also in contact with the Representations of the Croatian Tourist Board in order to react in a timely manner and to be able to re-realize the study trips of journalists as soon as possible. Every year so far, the Kvarner Tourist Board has organized almost 500 study trips, which have resulted in numerous valuable publications in the strongest tourist media. The great interest of foreign tourism journalists comes to us through the platform TravMedia.com, the world's largest press network for the tourism sector, where through our regular publications we maintain contacts with journalists, "influencers", media professionals, PR agencies and other representatives of the tourism industry," pointed out the director of the Kvarner Tourist Board, Irena Peršić Živadinov, and added that it is important to agree at the EU level as soon as possible on a unified procedure for the arrival of guests and their return to their home countries.

At the moment, one of the strongest advantages of Croatia is the proximity and the fact that we are a very quick auto-destination. The Kvarner region, primarily for guests from Slovenia, Austria and Hungary, is first on the list as a destination for a short weekend getaway, considering that a large number of residents of those countries were forced to use their holidays while the pandemic was at its peak.

"This possibility of unhindered and fast border crossing, as well as the conditions for returning to the home country, will greatly affect the final results of the summer tourist season. According to the expectations of the tourist economy," Peršić Živadinov points out.

This season, Kvarner expects 30% of last year's tourist traffic in the summer months

According to information from the field and partners from our main foreign markets, reservations for the main season have not been canceled, and interest and intentions for guests to come to Kvarner during the summer still stand, explains Peršić Živadinov, and adds that this year, they could realize about 30% of last year's tourist traffic in the summer months.

Although Kvarner started the 2020 tourist year with excellent numbers - during January and February there were 16% more overnight stays and 16% more arrivals, and many years of statistical analysis confirmed steady and stable growth, due to the pandemic and closed borders, everything is temporary on hold. With the relaxation of measures in the first 10 days of May, 14,000 overnight stays were realized, while in the next 10 days, 43,000 new overnight stays were realized.

Slovenes are the first guests

For example, since the opening of the borders with Slovenia, the Kvarner region has recorded a gradual increase in the number of guests. Thus, on the first weekend after the measures were relaxed, guests from Slovenia realized 1,550 overnight stays (which is 22% of the realization if we compare with the same weekend in 2019). Already next weekend (22.05.-24.05.2020) guests from Slovenia realized 9,150 overnight stays (which is 58% of the realization if we compare with the same weekend in 2019)

"It is important for us to relax measures and decisions on the relaxation of border crossing conditions from Austria and Germany, given that guests from Austria have a share of 15%, and guests from Germany a share of as much as 30% in all total overnight stays in Kvarner. In this sense, the results of a survey conducted in Germany, which showed that Croatia still remains at the top of the most sought-after destinations, are positive, and it is expected that this year German guests will achieve the smallest drop in arrivals, 20%, compared to the other three Mediterranean countries (Italy, Greece and Turkey)," concluded Peršić Živadinov.

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ZAGREB, May 28, 2020 - Croatian and Slovenian economy ministers, Darko Horvat and Zdravko Pocivalsek, met on Wednesday in Mursko Sredisce for the talks on economic cooperation after the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and on better connectivity with the construction of a new bridge across the Mura River.

After the meeting on the bridge across the Mura River and in the office of the mayor of the Croatian border town of Mursko Sredisce, Minister Horvat said that both economies were cooperating very well and they were the top five strongest trade partners to each other.

They pledged to make sure that the bilateral cooperation should be raised as soon as possible to the level it was prior to the corona crisis.

"We agree that the corona threat has warned us and compelled us to develop much better cooperation in the segment of the common European market but also as two countries that have very good economic relations," said Horvat.

With reference to Croatia's current presidency of the European Union and future chairmanship by Slovenia In the second half of 2021, he added that the two countries have been cautious when it comes to the aim of having climate-neutral industries by 2050 and where to find favourable funding to reach that target.

Minister Pocivalsek recalled that last year was a record year for trade between Croatia and Slovenia, exceeding €6 billion.

"We have to take pride that we overcame the corona crisis as far as the health aspect is concerned better than countries that are more advanced and economically developed than us. That gives me hope that we will turn this year's negative trends into positive figures. And they will be better if we cooperate better," Pocivalsek said.

He added that the first step to open the borders has been taken by allowing the owners of properties and vessels to enter the country and that as of June 1, the border should be opened for tourists.

The two ministers discussed the construction of a new bridge across the Mura River and a bypass around Mursko Sredisce which would relieve this northern Croatian town of freight traffic in the centre of town. Horvat said that determining junction points was important for the preparation of project documents for the new bridge and bypass road.

Mayor Drazen Sprak said that the road was not only important for the town but that it would also connect the Slovenian motorway from Graz through Maribor towards Budapest and Croatia's motorway from the Hungarian border at Gorican towards Zagreb and then on to Rijeka and Split.

May 28, 2020 - Marin Pongracic played two great games in the space of only four days for German club Wolfsburg.

Gol.hr reports that in the last four days, the future stopper of the Croatia national team, Marin Pongracic, presented himself in a phenomenal way to the German and international football public. In his fifth appearance for Wolfsburg, he scored two of four goals in a big 4-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen.

Pongracic scored twice by a header, but many may have been even more surprised by his significant reactions in defense, where he was faced with two hellish attackers, the best in the league.

Recall, just four days earlier, Wolfsburg welcomed Borussia Dortmund and was defeated 2-0. But Pongracic played great in that match and made Erling Haaland, the Norwegian attacking sensation who has scored 41 goals in the Austrian and German leagues so far this season, completely invisible.

He did the same last night to Kai Havertz, who scored 14 goals this season for Bayer.

Man of the hour ⭐

On only his fifth Bundesliga appearance, 22-year-old centre-back, Marin Pongracic, leads Wolfsburg to victory with two headed goals ?#B04WOB 1-4 pic.twitter.com/6d4DY8QLyV

— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) May 26, 2020

"The man of the game! In just the fifth appearance, 22-year-old stopper Marin Pongracic led Wolfsburg to victory with two headers," reads the Bundesliga announcement on social media.

During the match against Borussia, Pongracic achieved a sprint speed of as much as 34 km / h, which is only two km / h less than the Bundesliga record held by Achraf Hakimi.

Pongracic arrived in Wolfsburg in January for 10 million euro from Salzburg, Austria. Born in Landshut, Germany and of Croatian descent, Pongracic joined the Croatia U17 team in 2014 after he was called up for training camp. 

Marin’s senior football career began in 2016 for 1860 Munich II, following by a season with 1860 Munich, and 34 appearances for Red Bull Salzburg, before joining Wolfsburg in 2020. 

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