News

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - The State Intellectual Property Office received 88 patent applications in 2021, which is  41 fewer than in 2020, while 58 patents were granted nationally, or nine fewer than in the previous year, according to data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS). Local applicants lodged 77 patent applications, down by 40, and 11 patent applications were submitted by foreigners, as against 10 in 2020. Broken down by the fields covered by applications, 35.8% related to machine engineering, while 17.5% related to metrology and chemistry each. One in four granted patents in Human Necessities According to International Patent Classification (IPC), the…

March 26, 2022 - Croatia and Slovenia draw 1:1 in the first friendly match in Doha on Saturday. Croatia meets Bulgaria next on Tuesday.  The Croatia national football team met Slovenia in a friendly match at the Education City Stadium in Doha today at 15:00.  Even though this was a friendly match, it was still important for Croatia. Namely, Croatia needs one draw from two friendly matches to be placed in Pot 2 in the World Cup draw scheduled on April 1.  Zlatko Dalić is using this friendly tournament to try out the new system of three in the back,…

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - Croatia has registered 1,587 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours and 14 patients have died as a consequence, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday. There are currently 11,008 active cases, including 613 hospitalised patients, 41 of whom are on ventilators. Also 7,454 people are self-isolating. Croatia has registered a total of 1,093,098 cases of COVID-19 since its first registered case on 25 February 2020, and 15,509 people have died as a consequence of this infectious disease, while 1,066,581 have recovered from the contagion, including 1,751 in the last 24 hours. Two thirds of adults have…

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - The number of students from Chile attending university programmes in Croatia has doubled this year since the previous school year, and Croatia can expect even more Chilean undergraduates after the election of Gabriel Borić, who has Croat roots, as the president of that South American country. This academic year, there are 45 Chilean students enrolled in the ongoing semester course of Croatian Language and Culture provided by Croaticum Centre in Zagreb. Croaticum, established in 1962 as the Centre for Croatian as a Second and Foreign Language, is the oldest and largest institution engaged in teaching, research and description of Croatian as a second…

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - The Daffodil Day, traditionally observed in Croatia in March to raise awareness of breast cancer, was again marked by outdoor events in the main squares in Croatian cities on Saturday, after a two-year break due to the coronavirus pandemic when only online events were held on that occasion. In Zagreb's "Trg bana Jelačića" and "Cvjetni" squares, citizens could get information about this malignant disease.  Also, a mobile mammography van arrived in Zagreb's main square to offer free medical checks as part of the 26th edition of Daffodil Day. On the occasion of this year's Daffodil Day, Health Minister Vili…

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - Daylight Saving Time (DST) starts on Sunday, 27 March at 2 am, when clocks will be moved forward by one hour to 3 am. The clocks will be set back one hour to standard time on Sunday, 30 October 2022. According to the current EU law, DST starts on the last Sunday of March and ends on the last Sunday of October. DST is the practice of setting the clocks forward one hour from standard time during the summer months, and back again in the autumn, in order to make better use of natural daylight and reduce electricity bills. Although…

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - The decision made by the City of Sisak and Mayor Kristina Ikić Baniček (SDP) to ban Caritas Croatia to conduct a humanitarian action in local schools prompted MP Marijana Petir to report the whole case to the Public Ombudswoman as an example of "discrimination based on faith and education". The report filed by this independent lawmaker on Friday reads that the ban issued by the city authorities violate "the religious rights and freedoms " of the Catholic Church, which are guaranteed by the Croatian Constitution and the international treaties between Croatia and the Holy See. Recently, the…

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - Croatian Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina Ivan Sabolić on Friday denied allegations by some local media outlets about Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković having lobbied during the European Council's meeting for the deferment of Bosnia's general elections. The allegations that Plenković advocated the postponement of the elections, which are expected to be held in October, and that the European Council dismissed that possibility were first presented by the Klix news portal, and after that some other local media outlets disseminated them. Bosnian presidency member Željko Komšić immediately joined the comments that this failed attempt by Croatia's officials to defer the polls…

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - The heads of state or government of the European Union's member states, who on Friday concluded their two-day summit meeting in Brussels, tasked the European Commission to propose an efficient solution to electricity price hikes. The European Council calls on the European Commission "to submit proposals that effectively address the problem of excessive electricity prices while preserving the integrity of the Single Market, maintaining incentives for the green transition, preserving the security of supply and avoiding disproportionate budgetary costs," according to the Council's conclusions. The Council of the EU and the European Commission are called…

ZAGREB, 26 March 2022 - Croatia is considering the possibility of increasing the capacity of its LNG terminal on the island of Krk from the current 2.6 billion cubic metres of gas to 2.9 billion cubic metres annually, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Brussels on Friday. He explained that the current infrastructure allows for this increase. "We believe that we can achieve this increase with the current infrastructure of our LNG ship and all the existing plants there," Plenković said after the end of the two-day summit meeting of the European Union, which discussed Russia's military aggression against Ukraine,…