News

ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - The main Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) indices went up on Friday, the Crobex by 0.09% to 2,125 points and the Crobex10 by 0.27% to 1,296 points. Regular turnover was HRK 4.6 million, about 1.5 million less than on Thursday. The most traded stock and the only one to cross the million kuna mark was Atlantska Plovidba shipping company, which turned over HRK 1.14 million. It closed at HRK 387 per share, up 4.03%. Thirty-seven stocks traded today, with 15 increasing and 12 decreasing in price, while ten were stable. (€1 = HRK 7.526395) For more, check out…

ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - Croatia's COVID-19 vaccination rate is lower than the EU average, and the vaccination campaign should have involved more health professionals and fewer footballers, a conference on the future of health care in Croatia was told in Zagreb on Friday. Professor Stjepan Orešković from the Zagreb School of Medicine said that Croatia has nearly 3,500 COVID deaths per million, while in Finland this number is nearly ten times lower. He said that Croatia should look up to countries like that and their strategies. "If you ask nurses why they don't want to get vaccinated, you will…

ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović, who heads the national COVID-19 response team, said on Friday that the team was considering shortening the period of self-isolation but that the current wave of the epidemic had still not reached its peak. "Considering the still high numbers of new infections, we cannot say that the epidemic has reached its climax, especially when compared to other countries," Božinović told reporters at an event at which 28 vehicles for traffic police were handed over at the Police Academy. Božinović said that one should be optimistic regarding the spring and hope…

ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - Opposition parties said in parliament on Friday they were submitting a motion for the replacement of Construction Minister Darko Horvat over the slow pace of post-earthquake reconstruction of Zagreb and Sisak-Moslavina County and insufficient absorption of funding from the EU Solidarity Fund. GLAS party leader Anka Mrak Taritaš said all citizens were aware that Horvat could not do the job of reconstruction. "PM Andrej Plenković will defend Horvat but deep down he, too, is aware that he cannot do this job. As long as Horvat is in this post, there will be no reconstruction," Mrak Taritaš, who launched…

ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović said on Friday Croatia was near the top in the EU in terms of security, and announced the procurement of new police vehicles and equipment. That would not have been possible had we not embarked on a comprehensive procurement of everything the police need," he said at a ceremony at the Police Academy at which 28 traffic police vans worth HRK 13 million were handed over. Božinović announced the procurement of motorcycles and interceptor vehicles worth HRK 40 million, saying that it was an investment in comprehensive security so that Croatia could stay near…

ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - The completion of construction on a new HRK 61.7 million ( €8.2m)Medical School building in Pula and the start of classes were inaugurated on Friday, with Science and Education Minister Radovan Fuchs attending. "This school is of strategic interest for the city and the county, as well as the wider area, as evidenced by student trends on the labor market after they graduate from this school, notably in primary healthcare and health tourism," the minister said. The new premises with modern equipment will provide students with better upbringing and education conditions as well as a higher quality…

ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović said on Friday that messages on security issues are not disseminated at news conferences, after he was asked by the press about speculations that President Zoran Milanović's security is at risk following his statements on the situation in Ukraine. "The basic principle is that security issues should not be discussed publicly. As far as our services are concerned and that refers to security and intelligence services and the Interior Ministry, they do their job 24 hours a day and I am certain that they are monitoring everything that is relevant to the security of Croatian citizens, including…

ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - Last year, 63,611 people died in Croatia, which is 10,866 or 20.6% more than the average number of deaths in the 2015-2019 period, the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS) said on Friday. During the time of the COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia, from March 2020 to December 2021, the death rate increased by 16.9% compared with the 2015-2019 average. According to provisional data, 7,313 people died in Croatia in December 2021, which is an increase of 57.6% on the five-year average for the same month. The largest number of deaths in a single month (7,608) was…

ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - Serbian Ombudsman Zoran Pašalić has requested the withdrawal of a Serbian language textbook for eighth-graders which denies the existence of the Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin languages, Croatian language-media in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina reported on Friday. The media quoted leaders of the ethnic Croat community as describing the recommendation as encouraging. A definition on the division of South Slavic languages in the contentious textbook, written by a group of authors, says that Serbian, Slovenian, Macedonian and Bulgarian belong to the South Slavic group of languages while "Croats, Bosniaks and some Montenegrins call the Serbian language Croatian, Bosnian, Bosniak and…

ZAGREB, 28 Jan 2022 - The EU should also work on a European health union and prepare for future crises, which cannot be done without young people, European Commission Vice-President for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Šuica said in Zagreb on Friday. Speaking at the opening of the Conference on the Future of Public Health in Croatia and Europe, Šuica said that it was important to draw lessons from the coronavirus pandemic and start working on a future European health union. She added that the pandemic had shown that the EU could respond to crises together, citing the procurement and distribution…