ZAGREB, 14 June 2022 - Telemach Croatia has covered almost all of Croatia with a 5G network and 100,000 households with a fast fixed fiber-optic network, approaching national coverage, to be completed by the end of 2022 or in early 2023 with the integration of Optima Telekom, Management Board President Adrian Ježina said on Tuesday.

Telemach has replaced and/or upgraded close to all of 1,200 base stations for the mobile network, and has so far covered Zagreb, Zadar, and Split with a 10-gigabit fiber-optic network, with Osijek to be covered soon as well, he said.

"We have achieved everything we planned in less than a year," he said, noting that this was possible owing to the support of the parent company United Group.

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ZAGREB, 14 June 2022 - The former mayor of Petrinja, Darinko Dumbović, is suspected of giving favourable treatment to companies connected with his son while he was mayor, his lawyer Dražen Ivanić confirmed to Hina on Tuesday.

USKOK anti-corruption investigators began searches of the houses, business premises and cars of Darinko and Darko Dumbović on Tuesday morning. They will be interviewed in Zagreb, and if USKOK requests custody for the suspects, that will be decided by a Zagreb County Court investigating judge.

The lawyer said Darinko Dumbović is suspected of helping his son win several business contracts from the Petrinja town administration. 

According to unofficial sources, among the companies that were given preferential treatment is Titan Commerce, established in April 2015, two years after Dumbović became mayor. Media have said that the company's revenue has increased by millions from year to year.

Dumbović served as mayor until June last year.

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ZAGREB, 14 June 2022 - A cooperation agreement between the Plitvice Lakes National Park and the Spanish Ruidera Lakes Nature Reserve was signed on Tuesday in Plitvice, in the presence of Croatian and Spanish officials for sustainable development and the Spanish Ambassador to Croatia, Alonso Dezcallar Mazarred.

The Minister of Sustainable Development of the Castilla la Mancha region, Jose Luis Escudero Palomo, said that the experiences and methods of the Plitvice Lakes National Park in protecting limestone barriers would mean a lot to the Spanish side because limestone barriers in the Ruidera Lakes Nature Reserve had suffered great damage due to hydropower projects.

He called on the signatories of the agreement to use the opportunities in the European Union Green Deal and submit their programs for EU funding for the protection of nature and biodiversity, specifically to protect their national treasures.

Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of the Economy and Sustainable Development, the director of the Nature Protection Directorate, Igor Kreitmeyer, emphasized that significant funds for visitor infrastructure had been invested in the Plitvice Lakes Nature Park over the past five years to make visitor pressure on nature as low as possible.

He added that "it is very important for experts to share their experiences in the management of protected areas."

"That is important in terms of preserving healthy ecosystems. Our only way out is to fight climate change, to function in a sustainable way as a whole, and that means living in a way that is promoted in protected areas,” said Kreitmeyer.

He praised the Castilla La Mancha region for being advanced in promoting environmental policies and wished that Croatia would learn how to better promote those policies in park management.

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ZAGREB, 14 June 2022 - Only 16% of senior high school students in Croatia have any basic knowledge about contraceptive methods, which has prompted the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) to launch an awareness campaign about sexual and reproductive health.

The preliminary results of a survey, conducted by the HZJZ in the last school year on a sample of 1,208 senior high school students from across Croatia, show that 355 students (29.3%) had some kind of sexual intercourse. Of the 355 sexually active students, only 57 (16%) had basic knowledge of contraceptive methods.

In an effort to provide young people with access to accurate and verified information, the HZJZ is organising a campaign from 15 June to 4 September as part of the Healthy Life project with Sanja Musić Milanović as the project leader.

"The campaign is focusing on young people, who are often faced with confusing and contradictory information from unreliable sources," the HZJZ said in a press release.

The national campaign will involve prevention messages that will be displayed on info panels, in locker rooms, on beaches and on posters in pharmacies throughout Croatia.

The campaign aims to raise awareness of all citizens, especially young people, about the importance of preserving and improving sexual and reproductive health.

This year's campaign will provide online education through posts and quizzes on social networks. Prizes will be awarded for the most original photos, videos and slogans, as well as for the fastest correct answers in the quizzes.

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ZAGREB, 14 June 2022 - The head of the Croatian Journalists Union, Maja Sever, has been elected President of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) at the organisation's general meeting that is taking place in Izmir, Turkey on 13 and 14 June, the Croatian Journalists Association announced on Tuesday.

Sever received 137 votes, while the other candidate for this position, Mariusz Pilis of Poland, gained 7 votes.

Sever is the first woman to serve as EFJ President in the organisation's history. She thanked the delegates for their nearly unanimous support.

"This election is a great honour to me and a chance for us to continue our struggle for strong and independent professional journalism," Sever said after her election.

She said her presidency would focus on the safety of journalists, improvement of worker and professional rights and the status of freelance journalists, and the fight against SLAPP lawsuits. She also highlighted the importance of journalist associations and unions fighting for better strategic and legislative frameworks at the national and EU levels.

The EFJ is the largest organisation of journalists in Europe, representing over 320,000 journalists in 73 journalists' organisations across 45 countries.

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ZAGREB, 14 June 2022 - Justice Minister Ivan Malenica has decided to put an end to hiring for civil service positions "through personal connections" by digitising the hiring process.

The minister has launched a tender for a centralised selection system for admission to the civil service, and nine bids were received last week.

The purpose of the project is to avoid a repetition of examination questions and prevent candidates who have already participated in examinations and are acquainted with previous questions from having an advantage over other candidates, according to the tender document cited by Jutarnji List.

It also aims to prevent the hiring of persons using their personal connections or party membership to get a civil service job.

For this reason the government has decided to buy a software that will put questions randomly and select the best candidates according to predefined criteria. The procurement value is HRK 10.9 million (€1.45m) excluding VAT.

"The aim of the project is to establish a more objective and transparent hiring system based on actual needs and allocated funding, which will ensure the hiring of the best and most competent candidates, improve the efficiency of public administration and put its focus on user needs," the tender document says.

The selection process will be carried out centrally by online testing, which will ensure the objectivity and transparency of the candidate selection process, Jutarnji List said.

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ZAGREB, 14 June 2022 - Croatia has registered 243 new coronavirus cases and one COVID-related death in the last 24 hours, the national COVID response team reported on Tuesday.

Currently, there are 166 active cases in the country. Among them are 163 people who are being treated in hospital, including seven who are placed on ventilators, while 823 persons are self-isolating.

Since 25 February 2020, when the first case of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus was confirmed in the country, 1,140,078 people have been registered as having contracted the novel virus, of whom 16,020 have died and 1,122,395 have recovered, including 234 in the last 24 hours.

To date, 4,907,920 people have tested for COVID-19, including 2,599 in the last 24 hours. A total of 5,255,757 vaccine doses have been administered and 59.54 per cent of the total population, i.e. 70.81 per cent of adults, have been vaccinated.  2,315,060 persons have received at least one dose and 2,244,561 of them have been fully vaccinated, which is 68.76 per cent of the adult population.

For everything you need to know about coronavirus specific to Croatia, bookmark our dedicated section and select your preferred language if it isn't English.

June 14, 2022 - After a two-year break, Split will host one of the world's largest international electronic music festivals, Ultra Europe 2022, at Park Mladeži from July 8 to 10.

The participants of today's press conference held in the Split city port confirmed that everything is ready from the organizational aspect. According to the organizers, Split expects the biggest Ultra yet. 

"After the pandemic crisis and uncertainty, we gathered courage. With the great interest of fans and the support of the Government, the Ministry, Tourist Board, and all partners, we dared to maintain Ultra. For now, all indicators say that we were right because the interest has never been higher, especially the increase in guests with higher spending power," said Joe Bašić, director of the Festival. He added that as a responsible organizer, he wants to create further and develop an environment beneficial to society and development for the city.

On behalf of the host city, the great event was supported by the Commissioner Mirna Veža:

"This is a serious event with great positive tourist and economic effects on our city. That is good and positive for our citizens and us. Our focus and imperative is safety during the event, with the cooperation of the organizers, our police department, and the police being crucial. I expect us to be in sync and up to the task to present ourselves as a city of culture, heritage, and entertainment, but also as an organized, safe, and serious city for our citizens and visitors."

State Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism Tonči Glavina said that the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Ministry strongly support the project, which is recognized as a project of strategic importance. He cited data from a study conducted in 2018, which supports the festival's positive effects on GDP, especially on the promotion and marketing of Split, Dalmatia, and the whole of Croatia.

The leaders of the Split and Split-Dalmatia County Tourist Boards, Alijana Vukšić and Joško Stella, emphasized the immeasurable positive tourist and marketing effects of Ultra. Furthermore, the support and confirmation of the readiness of the services under the jurisdiction of the County were expressed by the Deputy Prefect of Split-Dalmatia Stipe Čogelj, while the director of the Public Institution Sports Facilities Gordon Cerjan said that preparations at the Park Mladeži are going according to plan. 

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