Politics

ZAGREB, 3 Jan 2022 - Over 2,000 jobs have been saved and 54,000 animals purchased thanks to financial instruments under the Rural Development Programme, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Monday. fi-compass, the European Commission's platform for advisory services on financial instruments, is preparing a brochure on a case study of the Croatian micro and small loan scheme as an example of good practice for other EU members to follow. This is the result of positive ratings by end-users and the successful use of funding from financial instruments of the Rural Development Programme which Croatian farmers used in 2019 more than…

ZAGREB, 3 Jan 2022 - The Croatian government will continue doing its best to help the Đuro Đaković company survive, and conditions are being created for the company's long-term sustainability with the support of a strategic partner from the Czech Republic, the government said in a statement on Monday. The statement was issued following a meeting between Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and the leadership of the Slavonski Brod-based mechanical engineering company. "At the meeting, both sides welcomed the European Commission's decision of late December 2021 to approve the program for Đuro Đaković's restructuring. The government had communicated intensively with EC officials and the EC's…

ZAGREB, 3 Jan 2022 - The EIZ Online Vacancy Index (OVI) has shown that labor demand in 2021 was up 5.5% compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019 and the positive trend continued in December with labor demand up by 32% year on year, the Institute of Economics, Zagreb (EIZ) reported on Monday. "Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the calendar year has ended with good news because the latest OVI index has shown a continuing positive image of the labor market," EIZ said on its website. The OVI index for December 2021 shows that labor demand in 2021 was 75% higher…

ZAGREB, 3 Jan 2022 - The organizing committees for two referendum petitions initiated by the Bridge party cost a total of HRK 428,300 (€57,106), the organizers revealed on Monday. The cost of the collection of signatures for the referendum petitions was capped at HRK 8 million each. From 4 to 18 December, the Bridge party collected signatures at over 1,200 venues across Croatia for the two referendum petitions: one for the transfer of the powers of the national COVID-19 crisis management team to the parliament, where all decisions concerning COVID crisis management should be approved by a two-thirds majority, and the other one for…

ZAGREB, 3 January 2022 - Last week, the European Commission disbursed a grant of €277.8 million from the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF) to help Croatia repair the damage caused by the earthquakes that struck central areas of the country at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, the Commission said on Monday.  The Commission has awarded €319 million of EUSF support to Croatia following the devastating series of earthquakes that hit Sisak-Moslavina, Karlovac, and Zagreb Counties in December 2020 and January 2021. €41 million was paid as an advance in August 2021, and the balance payment of €277.8 million was…

ZAGREB, 3 Jan 2022 - The value of fiscalised receipts issued for all activities last week recorded an increase of 39% compared to the corresponding week last year and up 6% from the corresponding week in 2019, the Tax Administration reported on Monday. In the week of 27 December 2021 to 2 January 2022, the value of fiscalised receipts for all activities amounted to HRK 3.4 billion (€453 million), which is HRK 964.2 million or 39% more than for the comparable period a year ago. At the same time, the number of receipts issued was soared by 48% to 35.2 million…

ZAGREB, 3 Jan 2022 - The Croatian National Bank (HNB) has recently published figures about the country's debt, showing that the total debt amounted to HRK 344.7 billion at the end of September 2021. "Measured against the annual GDP, the total debt amounted to 82.4% of GDP at the end of September 2021, and 84.7% of GDP at the end of September 2020, which is a decrease of 2.3 percentage points on an annual level, but also a decrease of 3.7 percentage points over the previous quarter, when this share was 86.1%." According to final data provided by the central bank, "the total consolidated…

ZAGREB, 3 Jan 2022 - The membership of the euro area will provide Croatia with better protection in periods of economic crisis, the National Bank (HNB) Governor, Boris Vujčić, told the national broadcaster's (HRT) evening news program on Sunday. The euro changeover is expected in one year's time, and Governor Vujčić said that a lot of logistical preparations lay ahead. "We hope that we will enter the euro area in a year's time, and 2022 is the year of preparations," said Vujčić. The final decision on the date will be known this summer, however, we are making preparations to be ready for the euro changeover…

January 2, 2022 - The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in Zagreb's Ilica currently has 35 cases indicating possible EU funds misuse. The State Attorney's Office submitted 25 cases of EU funds misuse after 10 November, the date after which they were obliged to submit cases within the possible competence of the European Prosecutor's Office, reports Jutarnji List. Until that date, the State Attorney's Office had submitted 10 such cases, including the one on the so-called affair software that resulted in the arrest of former Minister Gabrijela Žalac. The former minister decided that the MRRFEU would make this purchase at a price much higher than the…

January 2, 2022 - Young people from the Balkans migrating to other European countries in search of opportunities and better salaries is already a well-known story. However, it could be more serious than it seems and AFP uses Croatia to warn about this phenomenon. The renowned Agence France-Presse, the oldest journalistic agency in the world, published today an investigation on the migration crisis affecting several countries in the Balkan region. After their independence in the 90's, many countries in the Balkans progressively found the way to development and economic openness. However, and as reported by the AFP, to date they have…