April the 8th, 2021 - After approximately a decade, Google Maps is set to return to the country's streets and roads to film Croatia once again in order to make what are likely to be many updates and changes.

As Darko Bicak/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the funny looking Google Street View cars are returning to film Croatia this spring. In the coming months, the car will embark on a journey touring many cities, towns and covering many streets and roads across the entire country. The goal of the Google Maps Croatian re-run will of course be to update Google Street View photos of cities, roads, and highways across the Republic of Croatia on the wildly popular Google Maps platform.

Thanks to the Google Street View service, users have the opportunity to view most Croatian cities and many historical sights such as Orlando's Column in Dubrovnik, St. Jacob's Cathedral in Sibenik and much more, as well as natural beauty the country possesses such as Papuk Nature Park.

Google is aware that infrastructure in cities, but also between cities, alters and develops over time, sometimes quickly and that sometimes natural disasters leave their mark on the landscape of a country, so their photos need to be updated regularly. The new photos taken as they film Croatia once again will help users navigate even better and plan their upcoming trips more easily.

Street View is a popular Google Maps feature available in more than 220 countries around the world, as well as parts of the Arctic and Antarctic. Thanks to the platform, users can see different streets and cultural and take a peek at national heritage sites in 360 degrees. It is also available via Google Earth, as is Google Maps for mobile phones.

Here in Croatia, the Street View service has been available since back in 2012 and is constantly updated to provide the most accurate picture of reality within the country. In addition to the streets and roads, Google also photographed pedestrian zones of various Croatian cities and other places to which cars don't typically have access, such as Split's Riva or the very heart of the Old Town of Varazdin.

For more, follow our lifestyle section.

April the 8th, 2021 - The Zadar cruise ship season for this summer is being called into question owing to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Many worry that cruise ships won't be docking in that particular Dalmatian city until autumn.

As Morski writes, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic completely paralysed the cruise ship industry last year. Due to the impossibility of securing the necessary epidemiological measures, the world's largest cruise companies moored almost all of their gigantic vessels. Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) shows that in the circular tourism sector in 2020, there were only 26 arrivals, which is 700 trips or a mindblowing 96.4 percent less than there were in 2019, all as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the numerous problematic restrictions on international travel.

The data also shows that there were cruises of foreign ships taking in the first three months of last year, then there was a complete cessation of travel until the month of July. Five trips were made in August and September, after which the cruise industry stalled completely by the end of the year. In 2020, cruisers sailed only in ports in Dubrovnik-Neretva and Istria counties. Unlike large international vessels, small cruise vessels from Croatian agencies and companies did make several voyages in late June and early July, following the easing of epidemiological measures in Croatia back at that time

Skific explained the situation with the interruption of cruise ships and problems in the last year, as well as the potential and prospects for the upcoming tourist season.

''Last year will probably be recorded as one of the most difficult years we've ever had, especially in the segment of international passenger traffic. The coronavirus pandemic practically wiped out all cruise ship announcements as well as international liner traffic in the space of a mere few weeks in March, not only in all Croatian ports but in all ports across the world. It's been a global crisis, and cruise companies have been hit the hardest by the pandemic, even more so than the aviation industry. It's impossible to dock in more or less all of the world's ports, and the only type of activity that remains in the ports has become the acceptance of ships without passengers on them, vessels which are at rest,'' explained Skific.

''Out of the announced slightly more than 200,000 passengers back in 2020, only 714 passengers arrived, and all of this more or less happened before the start of the pandemic in March. An additional limiting element in the acceptance of cruise ships during 2020 was the Decision of the National Civil Protection Headquarters on the ban on entry of passenger ships carrying more than 200 passengers into Croatian waters.

For most of the year, there were one to two cruisers of the Marella Cruises company (Dream and Discovery 2) in the ports, in their lay-up (at rest) status,'' he added.

Compared to pre-pandemic 2019, revenues in the cruise ship segment decreased by approximately 5 million kuna. When compared to the announcements for 2020, the decline in revenue should have been even more pronounced. Zadar Port Authority lost so much at the expense of collecting port fees. Broadly speaking, the lost revenue of all our concessionaires that are directly related to the provision of services to cruise ships are very high,'' noted Skific.

The Zadar cruise ship season this year is being called into question, and this industry will have the hardest time of all when it comes to recovery

Experts predict that the cruise ship industry will have the hardest time recovering from the consequences of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike airlines, which, in the absence of passenger transport, shifted their operations to freight, cruise companies had no choice but to "drop anchor" and wait. Due to the uncertain situation with the coronavirus pandemic, the Zadar Port Authority hasn't yet published its list of announced cruiser arrivals. They say that when a trip is actually realised, they will publish the data day by day.

''The announcements of arrivals for this year aren't relevant because the data changes from day to day and this is completely unreliable data, given that even cruising companies don't know if and when they will start implementing their own respective itineraries for 2021. In the announcements, we had a little less than 200 voyages on which about 320,000 passengers were to arrive, counting on the full capacity of the vessel. Realistically, we expected about 280,000 passengers in 2021, of course, this was according to the announcements before the coronavirus pandemic struck,'' explained Skific.

The Zadar cruise ship season for 2021 will depend entirely on the epidemiological situation at any given time

The biggest challenge for cruise companies in 2021 will be to gain the trust of both tourists and employees. Holidays in a situation where the proper epidemiological measures aren't one hundred percent guaranteed are now no longer attractive at all. No company is interested in repeating last year's situation in which the passengers and crews of cruisers found themselves, when it was discovered that the virus had appeared on vessels in the United States and in Japan.

Passengers and crew in such situations were forced to either carry out quarantine on board the ships or in the country where the ship was granted permission to anchor. Some countries such as Thailand and Malaysia have banned the landing of cruisers in their ports. Such a situation also leads to diplomatic conflicts between countries whose citizens are infected on a cruise ship and countries that aren't ready to take care of the sick or at least arrange to ensure their return to their home countries in accordance with all epidemiological measures.

Skific was asked about the existence of instructions and protocols on the entry of vessels under foreign flags if there are infected crew members or passengers on them.

''According to the announcements, a general instruction of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure on the treatment of infected passengers is expected. However, it's also expected that in agreement and coordination with the National Civil Protection Headquarters, different approaches will be present depending on the destination, city or port. It will all depend on the current epidemiological situation in certain destinations,'' he said.

Both ports and cruise companies are required to provide security and safety protocols

''From the very beginning of the pandemic, we've taken a number of measures to protect the health of employees - all according to the instructions of the Headquarters - from disinfectants in each office to having it at the entrance to the Port Authority. The entrance door to the premises of the Zadar Port Authority is locked so that we strictly control who enters and exits, we keep our distance at meetings and wear masks, we also do the same in our offices if more than one person is working in the office at any one time.

There are few of us and it's very important for us to preserve the health of every single employee given the large amount of work and projects that this Port Authority implements. Additionally, in the case of smaller controlled events with more than one person involved, the body temperature of each of the participants is measured,'' he assured.

Cruise ships are practically prisons at sea, which is hardly an attractive idea to anyone. Last year, due to a lack of information about the novel coronavirus, and due to not finding a way to prevent the virus from entering ships, cruise companies were brought to their very knees in the form of bankruptcy. This year, the main task of cruise companies is to provide healthcare and safety protocols to protect both passengers and crew.

The most important part of these protocols is to test all passengers and crew members for the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, before departure. One of the ways to reduce the possibility of exposure to the virus is to abolish the stay outside the vessel during a vessel's time in ports or to arrange organisations referred to as ''Bubble trips", in which passengers and guides don't come into any contact with any people who haven't been on board.

In terms of hygiene standards, the use of hospital disinfectants, which destroy 99 percent of the virus, is now recommended. Reducing the number of passengers to ensure social distance is another important item to take into consideration although this will also hurt the already empty pockets of the industry. It is also being recommended to determine isolation units for guests and crew with suspected coronavirus infection.

With all of the above in mind, Royal Caribbean, together with the Israeli health and tourism authorities, offered the first round trip on which the crew and guests over the age of sixteen must be vaccinated against COVID-19.

A properly controlled corridor

''Cruise ship companies have adopted a number of very strict protocols - from PCR tests after the first and after each subsequent entry into the vessel, some companies will only allow vaccinated passengers to book, excursions are being organised in strictly controlled conditions and for some, it will not be possible for people to leave the ship freely with some individual arrangements.

Passengers who don't respect this will simply be sent home if, contrary to the ship's protocol, they go beyond the agreed rules. Such events have already been recorded in the few test itineraries organised with a limited number of passengers involved. In addition, companies will only fill part of their capacitis, and bus trips with more than 50 percent of their full capacity utilised will not be allowed on excursions.

Individual departures from the vessels in the next short-term period will not be possible at all. The protocols are such that in the destination they actually take us as a bigger threat to passengers than they could be to us,'' Skific pointed out, adding that COVID-19 protocols of cruise companies currently don't and won't allow for the uncontrolled arrival and departure of passengers.

''A controlled corridor with security guards measuring body temperatures, disinfectants and masks inside the terminal in that short passage time to the bus at this point seems quite sufficient. Travel and maritime agents, drivers and everyone from the destination who is in contact with passengers will have to adhere to the same protocols. However, depending on the epidemiological situation, the introduction of additional measures is not excluded,'' he warned.

Although the Zadar cruise ship season is in doubt, luckily, the Zadar Port Authority doesn't depend exclusively on cruise ships

''More or less all cruise ship trips before the end of June have been practically cancelled, and the big question is what will happen in the second half of the season. According to informal talks with these cruise companies, they don't expect a significant number of trips to actually happen before the end of August and the beginning of September. Let's hope that the vaccination of the population will do its thing - by improving the epidemiological picture across Croatia by the end of the summer, we could reach at least autumn with the arrival of some cruise ships.

Back at the very beginning of this year, we thought that about one-third of the planned arrivals would be realised, however, as things currently stand, we'd be pleased with the very fact that traffic is starting to actually kick off again. Luckily we aren't quite as exposed to the need for revenues from cruise ships like some other ports in Croatia and the world are, our revenues are prudently dispersed into several segments of traffic and activities, however, in case the pandemic fails to calm down by the end of the year, we'll all have cause for concern,'' warned Skific.

One thing is for sure, even if the coronavirus pandemic were to suddenly end tomorrow, all cruise companies will need a lot of time to regain the trust of customers and potential employees after this absolute disaster.

For more information on coronavirus specific to Croatia, including travel, quarantine and border rules, as well as the locations of testing centres up and down the country, make sure to bookmark this page.

For more on travel, click here. For all you need to know about Zadar, visit Zadar in a Page.

April the 8th, 2021 - The Solin company Include, the first domestic manufacturer of smart benches owned by entrepreneur Ivan Mrvos, has increased its production capacity by five times.

As Novac/Bernard Ivezic writes, on Monday, the Solin startup started mass-producing smart benches and smart waste bins. In one shift a year, 1,300 of them will be made. By comparison, since back in 2016, meaning since the establishment of production, until the end of last year, the Solin company Include has made a little less than 1,600 such items.

The Solin company Include's founder and director Ivan Mrvos has stated that they have launched a new production line worth 1.4 million kuna in total, half of which is co-financed by HBOR, in order to meet the expected growth in demand this year and in the years ahead of us.

''We've already filled our production capacities for the next three to four months with orders from Germany, Singapore and Canada, and as vaccination and the opening up of the economies abroad continue to progress, there's a possibility that we'll be able to open a second shift during the summer months,'' noted Mrvos.

His plan, as he explained, is to increase the Solin company Include's sales to 2.5 million euros during 2021. He expects that within that amount of 2.5 million euros, the new series of Steora smart benches alone will manage to bring in around one million euros, and growth should be generated by their Terra smart waste bins. The company had revenue of about 900,000 euros last year, despite the pandemic. That result, according to Mrvos, is proof that even in dire times, there remains a demand for their smart benches.

''Now we're going one step further and offering smart bins to cities. We have competition, but our bins are 45 percent cheaper than other, similar products and instead of seven to eight years, the cities can return their investment on them in half the time,'' said Mrvos.

He added that they have made more progress with the new generation of smart benches. In addition to the new design, new technology has also been developed, and the new Croatian smart benches can now compete with ordinary, classic benches in terms of price. In the last year and a half alone, Include has invested three million kuna in the development of the new Steora series. A team of 22 experts worked on it, including a doctor of science.

''We can offer more affordable products also because we now have our own serial production. We have machines, a paint shop and other things, and we're employing ten people on the new line,'' concluded entrepreneur Ivan Mrvos.

For more on Croatian-made products and domestic companies, visit Made in Croatia.

ZAGREB, 7 April, 2021 - A woman from Afghanistan claims that she was sexually abused by Croatian border police, and even held at knifepoint, after crossing the border, the Guardian said on Wednesday.

According to a dossier from the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), the incident occurred on 15 February, in Croatian territory, a few kilometres from the Bosnian city of Velika Kladuša, the British newspaper said.

In the report the woman said she tried to cross the border with a group of four others, including two children, but they were stopped by an officer who allegedly pointed a rifle at them.

The Afghans asked for asylum, at which one of the officers laughed, after which the woman was singled out for a search, the Guardian said, quoting her as saying that she insisted that he should not touch her because she was a woman and a Muslim, after which the officer slapped her.

The officer allegedly touched her breasts and behind, and ordered her to remove all her T-shirts, which she refused. The five migrants were then taken away in a police vehicle, after which the police again hit the Afghan woman, ordering her to strip naked and starting to sexually abuse her, at one point putting a knife to her throat.

The police physically assaulted other migrants from the group as well, and ordered them to walk back to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Guardian said.

It added that the European Commission condemned this alleged act and called on the Croatian authorities to investigate all allegations and punish those responsible.

DRC secretary general Charlotte Slente was quoted as saying that despite the Commission’s engagement on the migrant issue on the Croatian border, there had been no progress in recent months either in investigations of reports of brutal treatment by police or in the development of independent border monitoring mechanisms.

According to the Guardian, the Croatian Interior Ministry said there were no recorded dealings with "females from the population of illegal migrants" on the day in question and that Croatian police, by saving the lives of hundreds of migrants from minefields, rivers and snow, showed not only an organised and professional approach in the protection of the state border but humanity as well.

The Interior Ministry says the Croatian police are persistently portrayed as brutal without a single piece of evidence and that illegal migrants, when they fail to cross the border, are ready to falsely accuse those same police of abuse, the Guardian said.

According to the DRC, since May 2019 almost 24,000 migrants have been illegally pushed back to Bosnia, including 547 between January and February 2021.

For more about violence against migrants in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 7 April, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday that someone who planned to be president of the Supreme Court was expected to respect the law, which "is the prerequisite of every reform."

He was responding during Question Time to MP Arsen Bauk of the opposition Social Democratic Party, who said Plenković was preventing changes in the judiciary, that Croatia was the least vaccinated EU member state, that COVID-19 measures were being applied selectively and that there was no reconstruction after last year's earthquakes.

Plenković accused the SDP "and the whole left" of trying to create an "awful" atmosphere as if tomorrow there would be no wages, electricity or gas.

He said Croatia ordered 8.7 million vaccine doses and that people would be vaccinated, but that the government could not be responsible if a big drugs company had problems with its vaccine, production and distribution. "Other countries are in this situation too."

Bauk said Plenković did not refute any of his claims and that citizens believed the president more in his row with the prime minister over the election of the new Supreme Court president.

Bauk concurred with other opposition MPs' criticisms of the ruling HDZ's policies and their rejection of the possibility that Plenković's party could transform itself.

He said the HDZ's "core won't change, it's always more or less the same" and that "the HDZ has always functioned on doctrines of (...) sustainable nationalism and clientelism."

SDP MP says minister tried to bribe her

SDP MP Mirela Ahmetović said that "one of your ministers (...) personally offered me a bribe to keep quiet about all the illegal and negative things" about the LNG project off Krk island, and that as a result of the project the gas price for households went up 80% on 1 April.

Plenković accused her of having boycotted the project "dreamed of for 40 years", saying it would reduce the price of gas and that this benefitted Ahmetović as head of Omišalj Municipality.

He also dismissed claims by Marijana Puljak (Centre) that he was protecting Vice Mihanović, the HDZ's candidate for mayor of Split who is under suspicion of having plagiarised a scientific paper.

He said Mihanović had a doctorate and that it was up to the relevant commissions to decide on his doctoral dissertation, adding that Ivica Puljak, Marijana Puljak's husband, would certainly lose to Mihanović in the Split mayoral race.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 7 April, 2021 - PM Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday, in a comment on the death of a 2.5-year-old girl caused by domestic violence, that the decision to return the child to its biological family was bad and that those who made it should bear the consequences, noting that social care did not require a separate ministry.

"I don't know why the proposal to separate social care from the 'mega-ministry' is being made," Plenković told reporters in the parliament.

He recalled that in 2013, during the term of the Zoran Milanović government, a case similar to the last one happened in Slavonski Brod, and at the time there was a separate ministry of social care.

When they lack arguments, people make banal, nonsensical statements, Plenković said, adding that Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy Minister Josip Aladrović was capable of heading the ministry because the ministry had its services, directors, state secretaries and social welfare centres across Croatia.

"In this specific case with a fatal outcome, the assessment and decision to return the little girl to her biological family was a bad one and for that kind of professional mistake responsibility lies with those who make it," he said.

Plenković went on to say that since the case of an incident on Pag Island in 2019, when a father threw his four underage children from the first-storey balcony of his house, a lot had changed in the social care system.

"During the terms of ministers (Nada) Murganić, (Vesna) Bedeković and now Minister Aladrović, we have worked to strengthen the system of social care. We have worked to raise social workers' wages as well as standards of physical and technical security, so now welfare centres have guards," he said.

The government has increased outlays for social care and allowances and it expects the system to function better and to the benefit of children, he said.

Unfortunately, there are problems, there are dysfunctional families, horrible things are done by biological parents but they will all answer for their actions in a legal procedure, Plenković said, adding that he was appalled and extremely saddened by the latest case.

Speaking of illogical provisions in the foster care law, adopted by his government, Plenković said that every legal solution could be improved.

It is important to speed up foster care procedures and that all children who live in environments that are not appropriate and not safe find a safe place to live. We will improve the law. There is always something to improve, he said.

AstraZeneca vaccine

Plenković also talked about a decision the European Medicines Agency is expected to make on the age groups for which the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is acceptable.

He said he would meet today with Health Minister Vili Beroš and the directors of the Croatian Institute of Public Health and the Croatian agency for medicinal products to discuss the information they had, and that later today Beroš would participate in a video conference of EU health ministers.

"The most important thing is that the member states' ministers of health have a consolidated position, whatever the EMA's recommendation, and that there are no different practices. Different practices undermine the reputation of a vaccine, whatever its quality, which has happened with AstraZeneca from the start, unfortunately."

Plenković said the confusion about that vaccine had resulted in some people refusing it, which was not pleasant either for the company or anyone involved in vaccination.

He also responded to criticism that he had promised that a majority of the Croatian population would be vaccinated by spring yet had now postponed this until July.

He said AstraZeneca had promised to deliver 120 million doses to the EU in the first quarter but delivered 30 million. Croatia was to have received 1.7 million doses by 31 March and vaccinated more than 800,000 people, he added.

Plenković said 600,000 doses had been delivered and that 2.6 million would be by 30 June, adding that the government was working on having other vaccines available in case of more problems with AstraZeneca.

"Had we ordered 100% from each company and paid for 25 million doses, then all questions would have been - whose money are we spending and why are we buying three or four times as many doses as we need?"

He said an unforeseen thing had happened, not with a no-name company but one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

Central bank governor, fighter jets, former JANAF CEO's arrest

Asked if he had known about central bank governor Boris Vujčić's correspondence with representatives of the Knighthead fund concerning the Agrokor conglomerate, Plenković said the question should be put to Vujčić.

Speaking of the procurement of fighter jets, he said consultations were under way and that a decision would be made in time. All offers are valid and we'll take some more time to decide, he added.

Asked to comment on the new arrest of Dragan Kovačević, former CEO of the JANAF oil pipeline operator, Plenković said everything about it should be said by the USKOK anti-corruption office and the State Attorney's Office.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 7 April, 2021 - The Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) indices rose on Wednesday amid a modest turnover, totalling only HRK 3.5 million.

The Crobex went up 0.30% to 1,881.26 points and the Crobex10 rose by 0.48% to 1,183.39 points.

Turnover was modest, only HRK 3.5 million, around 2.2 million less than on Tuesday.

The most traded stock was the HT telecommunications company, generating a turnover of HRK 281,700, with its price going up 0.31% to HRK 1,605 per share. 

The ZSE reported that as of 8 April the Dukat dairy producer would no longer be listed on the ZSE. After the transfer of a minority shareholder interest in Dukat was entered in the court register on Tuesday and the interest was transferred to the account of the main shareholder, B.S.A. International, the Belgian daughter company of the French Lactalis, the ZSE will no longer list Dukat's shares.

Minority shareholders, who held 139,880 or 4.66% of Dukat shares, will get HRK 928 per share.

(€1 = HRK 7.560970)

For more about business in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 7 April , 2021 - Amnesty International says in its report on human rights in 2020 that Croatia continued to be violent towards illegal migrants and that access to abortion was constrained, while commending improvements regarding gender-based violence and a ruling allowing same-sex couples to foster children.

"Aid organizations documented over 15,000 cases of pushbacks and collective expulsions, frequently accompanied by violence and abuse," AI says, singling out the case of 15 migrants allegedly beaten by police while being tied to a tree.

The Croatian Interior Ministry regularly denies allegations of migrant abuse.

Gender-based violence

"In January, legal amendments harmonizing the definition of rape in criminal legislation with international standards and increasing penalties for crimes of gender-based violence entered into force," AI says, adding that "the number of reported rape cases more than doubled" as the changes "significantly expanded the scope of the offence. Proceedings continued to be lengthy, lasting between three and five years."

"Due to the reclassification of domestic violence offences, the number of criminal prosecutions for such offences rose sharply. Nevertheless, in the majority of cases, domestic violence continued to be treated as a minor offence attracting minor penalties. Police and courts remained reluctant to enforce protective measures," AI says.

Sexual and reproductive rights

"Women continued to face significant barriers in accessing sexual and reproductive health services and information," AI says.

"The widespread refusal of individual doctors and some clinics to perform abortions on grounds of conscience, as well as prohibitively high costs of services and poor regional coverage of authorized providers, presented an insurmountable obstacle to women of lower social economic status."

A new law on abortion was not adopted, AI says, although the "deadline to replace an outdated law set by the 2017 Constitutional Court ruling expired in February 2019."

Roma discrimination

"Roma continued to face discrimination in all walks of life, including education, health, housing and employment," AI says, adding that due to lack of electricity and the internet, "many Roma children were unable to access any remote learning during school closures, thereby further deepening educational gaps between Roma and non-Roma pupils."

Freedom of expression

"Journalists investigating corruption and organized crime continued to face threats and intimidation," AI says, adding that according to the Croatian Journalists’ Association, over 900 lawsuits were filed against journalists in 2020 for “violation of honour and reputation”.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.