Politics

ZAGREB, 18 January 2021 - Tomo Medved, Deputy Prime Minister and head of the task force dealing with the aftermath of the December earthquake, on Monday said that so far 507 housing containers and mobile homes had been installed for affected people in Sisak-Moslavina County, with 130 installed in the past three days. "Since last week we enhanced our teams for the delivery and instalment of containers and mobile homes and rendering them ready for use, and so far a total of 507 have been installed, with 130 installed in the past three days," Medved told a cabinet meeting. He reported…

ZAGREB, 18 January 2021 - Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Nataša Tramišak said on Monday that the reconstruction of the quake-struck Sisak-Moslavina County could start in the second half of the year, in early summer. "We will primarily seek funding available under EU programmes. We are speaking about €111 million to be used for housing reconstruction, that is, construction or renovation of the housing stock... to provide for the elderly, the feeble, the disabled, marginalised groups, members of ethnic minorities, etc," the minister told reporters before a government session. She explained that the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion was being amended and that…

ZAGREB, 18 January, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that there was an encouraging downward epidemic curve trend and that if it continued, it would give reason to hope that possible relaxation of anti-epidemic measures could be considered in consultation with experts. "It is good that the weekly average of confirmed infections has dropped to the level of mid-October," Plenković said at a government session. Croatia currently has the third biggest 14-day drop in new infections in the EU. The number of fatalities has been on the decline as well, the number of people on ventilators and hospitalisations has…

ZAGREB, 18 January, 2021 - The government decided on Monday to financially support independent artists, self-employed and independent culture professionals, tasking the finance and culture ministries to set aside an additional HRK 20 million this year as direct support to the culture sector. Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek said the support was envisaged for an activity that was not covered by Croatian Employment Service coronavirus relief measures and that it would come from a special culture ministry fund. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said the decision sent the message that culture was important also in times of…

ZAGREB, 18 January, 2021 - Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Nataša Tramišak said on Monday that the reconstruction of the quake-struck Sisak-Moslavina County could start in the second half of the year, in early summer. "We will primarily seek funding available under EU programmes. We are speaking about €111 million to be used for housing reconstruction, that is, construction or renovation of the housing stock... to provide for the elderly, the feeble, the disabled, marginalised groups, members of ethnic minorities, etc," the minister told reporters before a government session. She explained that the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion was being amended and that…

ZAGREB, 18 January, 2021 - The government on Monday decided to exempt households in Sisak-Moslavina County, hit by a devastating earthquake on 29 December, from paying electricity and heating bills for January, February and March as well as from paying the TV licence fee. Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Ćorić said that in January, February and March the state-owned HEP power company would not charge for electricity people whose houses were damaged by the quake and that it would also not charge them for connecting their temporary housing units and later reconnecting their rebuilt homes to the power grid. As for people…

ZAGREB, 18 January, 2021 - At the start of the second school term in Croatian schools, slightly fewer than 180,000 pupils are attending face-to-face classes according to model A, while 17 schools in Sisak-Moslavina County have been given approval to postpone the start of classes. According to the data from the Science and Education Ministry, a total of 150,636 pupils in lower grades of primary school and about 29,000 students in the fourth grade of secondary school are attending classes in schools. Students in higher grades of primary school and in the first, second and third grade of secondary school…

ZAGREB, 18 January, 2021 - The chairman of the parliamentary group of the opposition Homeland Movement party, Stephen Nikola Bartulica, said on Monday that the government was living in a parallel world, the government's earthquake response was late and coronavirus vaccination was going too slow. "The public administration, headed by the government, is living in a parallel world, as shown by the response to the earthquake in Petrinja and Sisak. Everyone could see that citizens privately organised themselves faster and better than many of the state services," Bartulica told a press conference in the parliament building. "The services were late…

ZAGREB, 17 January, 2021 - Members of the European Parliament will vote next week on the reconstruction of earthquake-hit Croatia and call on the Commission to define, in cooperation with European and Croatian institutions, how to quickly distribute the necessary financial and other aid for a swift recovery of the areas affected. At a plenary on Thursday, the European Parliament will also debate and vote on a resolution on alleviating the aftermath of the two quakes that struck Croatia last year - the one on 22 March in Zagreb and parts of Krapina-Zagorje County which damaged over 26,000 buildings, and the one…

ZAGREB, 17 January, 2021 - The state will fully finance the reconstruction or construction of buildings in assisted areas affected by the earthquake, Construction Minister Darko Horvat said on Sunday, adding that whether citizens would cover 20% of the costs would depend on their income threshold. Horvat told the press a bill on post-quake reconstruction said that Sisak-Moslavina County would co-finance 20% of those costs. If the county will not be able to pay that amount, the state will do so, he added. As for buildings and houses that have been demolished and will not be reconstructed, the state will fully finance…