Politics

ZAGREB, 10 Jan 2022 - The works on Pelješac Bridge will wrap up by the end of the month and the access roads are coming along too, so this tourist season it will be possible to drive across the bridge, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday while visiting the site in southern Croatia. There is ten more days' work on the bridge and a peak traffic test is planned for the end of the month, to be followed by technical checks, he added. "As announced, the construction of Pelješac Bridge will be near completion by the end of January 2022." He said…

ZAGREB, 10 Jan 2022 - The unemployment rate in the European Union (EU), the euro area, and Croatia in November dropped to its lowest level since March 2020 and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by Eurostat released on Monday. The European Union's unemployment rate, measured by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) methodology, in November, fell by 0.2 percentage points compared to the month before, to 6.5%. In the euro area, it slid by 0.1 percentage point to 7.2%. In both areas, the joblessness rate thus reached its lowest level since March 2020, when COVID-19 started…

ZAGREB, 10 Jan 2022 - President of Matica Hrvatska, Miro Gavran, on Monday presented the program for marking the 180th anniversary of that cultural institution and announced the drafting of a Croatian Language Act. "We have formed a task force to draw up the Croatian Language Act," Gavran said at the press conference, adding that the group included Fellows of the Croatian Academy: August Kovačec, Stjepan Damjanović, Mislav Ježić, and linguists Tomislav Stojanov and Mario Grčević. He underscored that in addition to the five renowned linguists, the draft bill would be prepared by three lawyers, and it would be co-signed by Croatian writers, after…

ZAGREB, 10 Jan 2022 - Social Democratic Party leader Peđa Grbin said on Monday that new restrictions that were to have entered into force on Monday had not yet been released in the Official Gazette nor on the COVID response team's website, nor had the authorities explained to them as ordered by the Constitutional Court. In a post on his Facebook profile, Grbin recalled that last week Interior Minister Davor Božinović, who is at the helm of the national COVID response team, stated that a surge in the number of infections caused by the Omicron variant of coronavirus, compelled the authorities to introduce…

ZAGREB, 10 Jan 2022 - In the past two decades, 24,000 people have been reported to have disappeared in Croatia, and in most cases, it has been about leaving one's home or about teenagers running away from home, the Večernji List daily reported on Monday. Croatia's National Registry of Disappeared or Missing Persons, whose acronym in Croatia is NENO, contains profiles of the missing and the Ministry of the Interior registers all the reports about the disappearances. In the last 12 months, the NENO public registry, which was established 10 years ago, has included the profiles of 94 persons who went missing. The registry was…

ZAGREB, 10 Jan 2022 - During his visit to Split on Monday, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that construction would soon begin of the access road to the €133 million Kozjak tunnel and that project should relieve traffic jams at the entrance to this biggest Croatian Adriatic city. "We spoke about the Vučevica-Kozjak-Kaštela project which is important for the construction of a tunnel valued at HRK 1 billion  (€133 million), and soon construction works will begin for the road from Vučevica," the premier said after meeting with Split-Dalmatia County Prefect Blaženko Boban. According to Plenković, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Oleg Butković and the Hrvatske Ceste (HC) road management company's…

ZAGREB, 10 Jan 2022 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday he was "appalled" by a decision by the Banja Luka city authorities to put up a plaque in tribute to JNA Major Milan Tepić, who blew up an ammunition depot in Bjelovar, Croatia in 1991, killing 11 members of Croatian defense forces. "We are all appalled considering (the incident) and the number of people killed at the time. Therefore we consider any memorial plaque inappropriate and condemn it," Plenković said during a visit to Split. When Croatian forces liberated the JNA barracks in Bjelovar on 29 September 1991, most JNA…

ZAGREB, 10 Jan 2022 - Croatian police representatives are en route to Belgrade to help in the search for Matej Periš of Split, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday. "I asked the interior minister to send a team of Croatian police representatives to Belgrade. They are en route today," he told the press. Periš, 27, went missing in the early hours of 31 December after coming out of a nightclub in Serbia's capital, where he came with a group of friends to spend New Year's Eve. He was last seen on surveillance camera footage running around the city. Plenković thanked the…

ZAGREB, 10 Jan 2022 - Croatia's ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina has presented a protest note to the BiH Foreign Ministry over a decision to unveil a plaque honoring JNA Major Milan Tepić in the Bosnian Serb entity capital, Banja Luka, who blew up an ammunition depot in Bjelovar, Croatia in a suicidal action in 1991. When Croatian forces liberated the JNA barracks in Bjelovar on 29 September 1991, most JNA soldiers there surrendered, while Tepić refused. Instead, he destroyed the ammunition depot, killing himself, 11 Croatian defenders, and dozens of JNA conscripts as well as endangering local civilians. Tepic, who was in charge…

ZAGREB, 10 Jan 2022 - Gas suppliers in Croatia are on their knees and due to an enormous increase in prices of that energy product on European stock markets, many of them are facing ruin, with the collapse of the entire system being the worst-case scenario. This conclusion is based on a dramatic notification sent in mid-December to the HERA energy market regulator and the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) association of gas suppliers and distributors, the Jutarnji List daily reported on Monday Even though the impending increase in gas prices, expected on 1 April,…