News

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Memorials honoring Holocaust victims were put up in the northern Croatian towns of Čakovec and Prelog on Wednesday, with Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mor expressing hope that the memorials, called Stolpersteine (stumbling blocks), would prompt young people to ask themselves who those victims were.  The Stolpersteine placed in the pavement in six locations in Čakovec and two in Prelog commemorate 28 members of the Jewish community and the event was organized by the Jewish community of Čakovec, Čakovec town authorities, the town authorities of Prelog and Međimurje County. This is an exceptional idea that pays tribute to all…

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Croatian National Bank (HNB) governor Boris Vujčić has said that the HNB's legal proposal is aimed at regulating tacit overdrafts the same way authorized overdrafts are regulated, which would result in greater consumer protection but also cause a drop in bank revenue of more than HRK 100 million annually. Addressing a news conference on Thursday, Vujčić recalled the HNB's proposal for amendment of the Consumer Credit Act in the segment concerning authorized and tacit overdrafts. The HNB will agree to those changes with the government and it will also meet with bank representatives, Vujčić said, noting that the final form of the bill had still…

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - The latest macroeconomic trends indicate the upward revision of forecasts of the growth for this year and we now can expect a 7% rise on the year, Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said on Thursday. He recalled that the government's current forecast is five percent. Marić said that tax revenue from 1 January to 31 August was 0.7% higher than fin the corresponding period last year while VAT was over four percent more year on year. YTD profit tax is a little lower as against the same period last year, but that was to be expected given that that is calculated…

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Thursday commented on the latest ECDC map on which Croatia's coast has stayed orange, saying that foreign tourists had recognized Croatia as a safe destination and that this year's tourism results could exceed 70% of tourism results in the pre-crisis year 2019. "According to the new ECDC map, the Croatian coast has stayed orange into September. Foreign tourists have recognized Croatia as a safe destination and we could exceed 70% of the tourism results from the pre-crisis year 2019," Plenković said on his Twitter account. Prema novoj karti @ECDC_EU, hrvatska obala ostala je ?…

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - In the last 10 weeks, there have been 117 COVID-19 patients on ventilators, and 110 of them were not vaccinated against this infection, Health Minister Vili Beroš said on Thursday. In the last 24 hours, 9,989 coronavirus tests have been performed and 8% or 798 have turned out to be positive; 11 COVID patients have died, bringing the COVID-19-related death toll to 8,349, the national coronavirus crisis management team stated on Thursday morning. Currently, there are 3,943 active cases, and of them, 440 are receiving hospital treatment, including 53 who are on ventilators. In the week from 23…

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Civic Education will be introduced in the second semester of this school year as a pilot project and an extracurricular subject, while in 2022 the programme is expected to be introduced in all schools in Zagreb, members of the city's ruling green-left coalition said on Thursday. The first semester of the new school year will be dedicated to preparations for the project, adoption of the curriculum for the subject, and teacher training. All of that will be tested in selected schools as part of the pilot project in the second semester. Schools to participate in the pilot project…

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - The eastern and central parts of Croatia turned red on the updated COVID transmission map produced by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Thursday. The City of Zagreb, coastal counties, and the north of Croatia remain orange. The red zones in Croatia are thus the counties with the seats in Karlovac, Sisak, Bjelovar, Slavonski Brod, Požaga, Virovitica, Osijek, and Vukovar. ECDC (September 2, 2021) The only "green" EU member-states on the updated map are Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland. The ECDC publishes maps every Thursday in support of the EU…

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Cooperation between Slovenia, Croatia, and Italy in protecting the Adriatic Sea is at its highest level in history, the foreign ministers of Croatia and Slovenia, Gordan Grlić Radman and Anže Logar, said at the Bled Strategic Forum. Logar and Grlić Radman participated in a panel discussion on cooperation in the Adriatic, which was originally to have been attended online also by Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio. "The Adriatic Sea obliges us to cooperate," said Grlić Radman addressing the panel discussion and adding that the three countries were working to connect ports in the northern Adriatic and…

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday that job-retention grants of HRK 4,000 per employee for August would remain in place for the catering industry, the event industry, passenger transport, and travel agencies. The grants will be disbursed in September to the event industry, travel agencies, and nightclubs, he said, recalling the relaxation of the anti-epidemic measures as of 1 September. All other businesses are more or less going back to normal, he said, adding that in case the need for grants emerges in some other sectors, the authorities will consider the matter. The shortened working week…

ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Two agreements, worth a total of HRK 55.5 million, were signed in Rab on Thursday to upgrade port infrastructure in this town on the northern Adriatic island of the same name and in the nearby mainland town of Senj. The first agreement concerns the award of a grant for the reconstruction of the wharf in Rab, while the second one relates to the construction of a new ramp in Senj's Stinica ferry port. The signing ceremony was attended by Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butković, Minister of Regional Development and EU Funds…