April the 8th, 2022 - The Top Gear Magazine Electric 2022 awards has awarded Croatian entrepreneur Mate Rimac's stunning Nevera a prestigious award.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, just weeks after being named GQ Magazine's Hypercar of the Year, Rimac's gorgeous  Nevera won the Best High Performance Electric Car Award at the prestigious Top Gear Electric 2022 awards. These Top Gear car magazine awards, organised and judged by a team of experts from Top Gear each year, highlight the most important cars around the world in a number of different categories.

Speaking about the impressive Nevera, the assistant editor of Top Gear magazine, Tom Ford said: “The evolution of the revolution - Nevera is a summary of the technological knowledge of the Croatian manufacturer Rimac, and when it comes to electricity and advanced control systems, Rimac is the god of lightning.''

A new generation of fully electric hypercar

Rimac's Nevera represents a paradigm shift in automotive performance, technology and design. The new generation of fully electric hypercar has also unlocked new dimensions of performance that were once considered unattainable. 1914 horsepower produced by four electric motors, running it from 0-60mph in just 1.85 seconds and up to 100mph in 4.3 seconds. The Nevera was named the fastest production car in the entire world last year, crossing a quarter of a mile in a world record of 8,582 seconds.

“When we first introduced the all-electric Concept_One supercar at the Frankfurt Motor Show back in 2011, it had no competition - the idea of ​​sports and supersports electric cars was still abstract. But today, with Nevera, we find ourselves in a market full of extremely impressive all-electric sports cars from some of the world’s largest manufacturers. On behalf of the team of people who have worked tirelessly to improve the Nevera over the past few years, it's a great privilege to be singled out by the amazing group of Top Gear experts as the best high-performance electric car in the world today,'' said Mate Rimac, the CEO and founder of Rimac Automobili.

For more, make sure to check out Made in Croatia.

April the 8th, 2022 - The much loved Croatian Jana water has won gold at a recently held competition for its top quality, which won't come as a surprise to anyone who has tasted it.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian Jana water (still natural mineral water) has quite rightfully won the highest international award for product quality, called the Grand Gold Quality Award, at the prestigious international competition Monde Selection which is organised by the International Institute of Quality.

Among 3,000 products from more than 90 countries in the category "Beer, water and non-carbonated beverages", the wildly popular Croatian Jana water took home a gold medal for its high quality.

It springs at a depth of 800 metres, and with the use of some of the most modern filling technology, still mineral water from that same depth is filled directly into the bottle, without any external influences, and thus retains its original natural purity.

It's worth noting that thanks to sixty long years of experience, Monde Selection has established itself as a leading authority in assessing the quality of consumer products based on organoleptic and scientific parameters.

The entire rather stringent evaluation process is carried out by a jury composed of technicians, chemical engineers, biotechnologists and sommeliers, all of whom have been selected on the basis of their professional qualifications, competence, experience and integrity.

Croatian Jana water has been a household and tourist favourite for more years than are worth counting, and is a must have in the hands and bags of those wandering Croatia's beautiful cities during the hot summer months when proper hydration is paramount. This is just another in an increasingly long line of 100% Croatian-made products which are being recognised by respectable international organisations for their high quality on a global scale.

Congratulations to Jana!

For more, make sure to check out Made in Croatia.

April 8, 2022 - Croatia Rally 2022 returns from April 21 to 24 this year with 66 crews from 26 countries and some 350,000 spectators expected.

Croatia Rally returns in precisely two weeks and will be stronger than ever. New speeds, new counties, new crews, and most importantly - even more content for viewers. The leading man of the Croatian rally, Daniel Šaškin, revealed all the details for Gol.hr. 

"There will be teams from all over the world. Professional teams are coming, VIP zone, trade, food & drink, and, of course, the biggest fan zone. It will be the biggest circus in Croatia this year; there will be something for everyone," said the Croatia Rally organizing committee president.

"There will be food, concerts, socializing with drivers, a whole range of activities. A total of 66 crews from 26 countries are arriving.

All of them, as well as a large audience, will have to sleep somewhere. Last year during the WRC, there were 4,600 arrivals and over 15,000 overnight stays, which is an increase of about 60 percent compared to other days in April.

We have rented all the hotels in Zagreb and the surrounding counties. Knowing the market, hotels would not be at this level of occupancy without the WRC," said travel agency head Dalibor Bilić.

And finally, one interesting thing - the rally will also measure its carbon footprint - that is, the amount of CO2 consumed during the rally.

"For the race in Finland, the carbon footprint was calculated as about 4,000 tons of CO2. We expect more; if we put it in some spatial dimensions, we could fill the Zagreb Arena with that amount."

Speaking of Arena Zagreb and its capacity, the Croatia Rally expects it could fill Arena Zagreb 16 times with the number of spectators, as about 350,000 spectators should watch the Croatia Rally live this year. 

You can check out the schedule, stages, and ticket information on the Croatia Rally 2022 guide HERE. 

To read more about sports in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

April 8, 2022 - The latest flight news to Croatia as new Wizzair and Vueling summer Split flights have been announced from Vilnius and Paris (Orly Airport). 

Two well-known low-cost airlines, Hungarian Wizzair and Spanish Vueling have announced new routes to Split Airport, reports Croatian Aviation.

Namely, Wizz Air and Vueling are introducing new routes to Split Airport in this year's summer flight schedule. Both airlines have been operating on several international routes to Split for years in the summer months.

Vueling will introduce a regular line between Split and Paris (Orly Airport) on June 17 this year, announcing two flights a week, every Tuesday and Sunday. The line should operate almost until the end of October, with only one flight per week available on Sundays.

A320 aircraft have been announced on the route, so more than 12,500 seats will be available on this new Vueling route from June to October.

Hungarian Wizz Air has announced the first new line to Croatia this summer season. This is a regular seasonal line between Vilnius - Split - Vilnius, which will also start operating in June.

The first flight has been announced for June 13, and two flights a week have been announced, every Monday and Friday, until the end of September or September 23. The A320 and A321 aircraft will operate on the route, which in the fleet of this airline have a capacity of 180 and 230 seats in the passenger cabin, respectively.

This is Wizz Air's first announcement of a new seasonal line to Croatia for this year, and there should be more soon. Namely, several Croatian airports are in final negotiations with this low-cost airline to launch seasonal routes to Croatia this summer. The advantage for Croatian airports lies in the fact that this airline unexpectedly received additional spare capacity. Namely, with the war in Ukraine, Wizz Air canceled flights to that country just like all other airlines. Just from the capital Kyiv, they planned to operate more than 100 international routes from two airports (Boryspil and Zhulyany) this summer.

The airline is now working urgently to employ excess capacity for this summer, which is an advantage of Croatian airports, especially Osijek Airport, where this carrier has already operated.

For more, check out our travel section.

ZAGREB, 7 April 2022- The European Parliament on Wednesday discussed a report on the Schengen evaluation mechanism and MEPs called for more frequent unannounced inspections and intensified monitoring of whether human rights are respected at the EU's borders.

Migrant crises and a series of terror attacks on EU soil have resulted in differences in the application of the Schengen acquis by the member states, and the Schengen has come across a crisis.

During the debate, it was also said that the coronavirus pandemic had produced an additional burden on the Schengen area and that internal border controls were restored.

Swedish MEP Sara Skyttedal, who is a rapporteur for the Council regulation on the establishment and operation of an evaluation and monitoring mechanism to verify the application of the Schengen acquis, called for more unannounced inspections to deal with suspected international security risks and violations of fundamental human rights.

"Unannounced visits, being one of the most effective tools to verify Member States practices, should take place without prior notification to the Member State concerned," reads the report on this topic.

"Unannounced visits should take place for ‘investigative’ purposes in order to verify compliance with obligations under the Schengen acquis, including, in response to indications as regards the emergence of systemic problems that could potentially negatively impact the functioning of the Schengen area or lead to fundamental rights violations, in particular allegations of serious violations of fundamental rights at the external borders," it is suggested.

The document was adopted on Thursday by 427 votes for, 102 votes against, while 24 MEPs abstained from the vote.

The Schengen area now has a population of 420 million in the 26 member-states.

Croatia has met all the technical requirements for its admission to the passport-free zone.

Croatian MEP Karlo Ressler told Hina that Croatia's joining the Schengen area was in the interest of all Schengen members and the EU.

Asked if there was opposition to plans to admit Croatia to the Schengen area, Ressler said that the visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Zagreb last year was a watershed moment.

Ressler underscored that the whole process is going as planned.

For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 7 April 2022 - Pope Francis has appointed priest Milan Zgrablić the coadjutor archbishop of Zadar, Archbishop Želimir Puljić said in a press release on Thursday.

Zgrablić, born in 1960, is currently the parish priest of the cathedral in Poreč. He became a priest in 1986.

The ceremony of ordaining Zgrablić as the Zadar coadjutor archbishop, will not be held before June, according to the press release.

For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 7 April 2022 - The central commemoration of victims of the Bleiburg tragedy and what in Croatia is known as the Way of the Cross marches, held under the auspices of the Croatian parliament, will be held on 13 and 14 May at Zagreb's Mirogoj cemetery and in Udbina, a town in Lika-Senj County.

Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković held a working meeting on the commemoration with representatives of the Croatian Bishops' Conference and the Honorary Bleiburg Platoon.

As part of this year's commemorative events, a mass will be served at the parish church in Bleiburg, Austria, and Croatia's Ambassador to Austria will lay a wreath there.

The central commemoration, including the laying of wreaths and a prayer, will take place at Zagreb's central cemetery, after which a mass will be celebrated at the Shrine of Croatian Martyrs in Udbina, some 140 kilometres south of Zagreb.

Participants in today's meeting underlined the importance of commemorating the victims in a dignified way to preserve the historical truth about the tragedy.

The event commemorates soldiers of the Nazi-allied Croatian Ustasha regime and civilians killed at the Loibach Field near Bleiburg, Austria in the aftermath of WWII, after they fled the areas taken over by Tito-led Partisans.

For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 7 April 2022 - Sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia will not stop the war in Ukraine, Croatian President Zoran Milanović said during a visit to Switzerland, adding that the war could be stopped only with the help of diplomacy.

"These sanctions will not be enough to stop the war," Milanović said at a news conference after meeting his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis.

The Croatian president said that having followed "the stock exchange in Moscow and the ruble that has returned to the level of a month ago in relation to the dollar", he had to conclude that "as in every such case, it unfortunately only encourages thugs."

"I would be happiest if Russia withdrew in an hour, if it simply left, but that won't happen," Milanović said, adding that the only way to stop the war is diplomacy, with mediation by the countries "that enjoy a certain level of trust."

There are just a few such countries in the world, he said at the end of the news conference, without specifying them.

"Croatia cannot do much in Ukraine," but it can do much in the Western Balkans, he said, adding that he and his Swiss counterpart discussed the topic at Cassis's suggestion.

"That concerns us directly and we have good intentions," Milanović added.

The Western Balkans is very important for Europe's stability and its security architecture, the Swiss president, a liberal and physician by profession, said.

Cassis said he was particularly moved to talk about that with the Croatian president and that it took him back to the time when he worked as a physician in Switzerland, working also with completely traumatised victims of war from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After their meeting, the two presidents participated in a panel on security challenges in Europe and Switzerland's neutrality, after which they were expected to visit CERN, the European organisation for nuclear research.

For more, check out our politics section.