Safe Sailing 2022 Action Sees 400,000 Kuna in Fines Issued
July the 24th, 2022 - The Safe Sailing 2022 action which was carried on on Friday along the country's coastline has resulted in an enormous 400,000 kuna in fines being issued.
As Morski writes, officers from all captains' offices within the framework of the Safe Sailing 2022 action (campaign) carried out 438 inspections, on the basis of which they found 172 violations of regulations and charged violators over 400,000 kuna in fines.
The Safe Sailing 2022 action involves the enhanced supervision of navigation safety, which was held on Friday, July the 22nd, from 10:00 to 18:00 in the areas covered by all Croatian port authorities. It was headed by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, monitored by the State Secretary for Maritime Affairs and EU Funds, Josip Bilaver, and the Director of the Administration for Safe Navigation, Captain Sinisa Orlic.
The goal of the action was primarily the education of all participants in Croatian maritime traffic, while the purpose of sanctioning violators was to prevent maritime accidents, and the main reason for holding a comprehensive coordinated action such as this one is certainly the heavily increased maritime traffic in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea during the height of the summer months.
State Secretary Josip Bilaver followed the course of action in the Zadar area of sailing safety supervision and expressed his satisfaction with what he saw and noted that approximately 160,000 vessels are currrently sailing in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea, while supervision is being carried out by 40 ships from eight port authorities.
''The surveillance activities during the Safe Sailing 2022 action were primarily aimed at controlling illegal sailing speeds and gliding in areas where that isn't permitted, which accounts for over 60 percent of the total violations. Supervision will also be carried out over boat rentals, unscrupulous swimmers and divers, passenger boats being used for one-day trips and other participants in maritime transport. Finally, I'd like to point out that this is the first, but certainly not the last action set to take place this season. I'd like to ask all participants in maritime transport to respect the sea, and to take proper care of themselves and others,'' said State Secretary Josip Bilaver.
The increased level of supervision carried out as part of the recent Safe Sailing 2022 action was dealt with by the officers of the port authorities in coordination with the Service for the Supervision and Management of Maritime Traffic (VTS), whose employees provided support with their own reports on the observed areas in which there was increased vessel traffic, the violations in navigation they'd observed, unidentified and identified maritime objects, and more, all with a special emphasis on the control of improper sailing speeds in unauthorised areas.
100 officers of the Department of Navigation Safety from the competent ministry participated in this action, and inspections were carried out with 23 vessels from the composition of the port authorities and associated branches. 438 such inspections were carried out, which found a total of 173 violations of the regulations set out in the country's Maritime Code, that is, the rulebook (pravilnik) on the safety of maritime navigation.
Fines in the total amount of 406,000.00 kuna were imposed on participants in maritime transport who were found guilty of any violations.
Through preventive actions towards all participants in maritime traffic, the necessity of observing safety regulations during navigation has been pointed out. This central action is a demonstration of the operational readiness and efficiency of the competent services of the ministry, that is, of the navigation safety system, and the implementation of enhanced navigation safety monitoring actions will continue in the area of competence of all eight port authorities during this period of increased maritime traffic.
For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.
Porec Drainage Offering People Purified Water Free of Charge
July the 24th, 2022 - Istria recently introduced measures to limit the use of drinking water in the area, and now the Porec drainage company is offering people their purified water for free.
As Morski writes, after Istria introduced a reduction in the use of drinking water across Istria County, municipalities and cities are all looking for ways to provide residents with water for activities that aren't allowed during the reduction period, such as watering green areas or washing the roads and streets.
Due to the emergency situation involving the water supply, the Porec drainage company would like to informs Istria County's residents and all other interested parties about the possibility of using purified water from their wastewater treatment plants.
Four newly built devices have the possibility of supplying such water; namely UPOV Lanterna (with a treatment capacity for 30,000 inhabitants), UPOV Porec - North (at the Saladinka location with a treatment capacity for 37,000 inhabitants), UPOV Porec - South (at the Mornarica location with a capacity treatment for 48,000 inhabitants) and UPOV Vrsar (at the Petalon location with a treatment capacity for 22,500 inhabitants).
These newly built devices use membrane technology for the ultrafiltration of waste water after it has undergone a biological treatment process, which purifies the water to the degree that it is suitable for irrigating green and agricultural areas and sports fields, for washing streets, roads and undertaking other similar activities which require water. These are the first devices of such technology built in all of the Republic of Croatia.
The total wastewater treatment capacity of all treatment devices is the equivalent of 137,500 inhabitants or approximately 22,000 m3 per day during the summer season, while currently the devices treat approximately 13,000 m3 per day.
The Porec drainage company claims that they have secured all of the technical conditions and infrastructure for the delivery of the purified water to larger consumers from the tourism sector, so that in the future, the full capacity of purified water delivery from these newly built devices can be used, and currently this water is being used by utility companies.
For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.
Bicycles, Scooters, Roller Skates, Equipment Given to Children in Ukraine
ZAGREB, 23 July 2022 - Bicycles, scooters, roller skates and additional equipment worth HRK 16,650 were given on Saturday to parents and children from Ukraine who have found refuge in Osijek and participate daily in activities conducted by Dkolektiv, a social development organisation from the eastern city.
The money was raised in a cycling campaign organised by Dkolektiv and the Slagalica foundation as part of which cycling duo Igor Toman and Ivica Lenard cycled 540 km from Zagreb to Trogir on the coast.
The objective was to raise HRK 15,000 but eventually HRK 16,650 was raised via 57 donations, said Mirna Šmit of Slagalica.
Bruno Koić of Dkolektiv said that before the campaign they mapped the needs of the children from Ukraine coming to their Social Studio every day. Our wish is to make their stay here as dynamic and nice as possible, he added.
The campaign organisers thanked Zagreb, Rijeka, Jastrebarsko, Trogir and Supetar for their logistic and financial support.
Toman and Lenard are disabled war veterans.
We went through a war and know what it's like, Toman said, adding that with this campaign they wanted to welcome the Ukrainian friends.
They started on 17 June and the ride took a little over 40 hours without interruption.
HNS Bosnia and Herzegovina Calls on High Rep to Impose Election Law Changes, Prevent Break-Up
ZAGREB, 23 July 2022 - The HNS Bosnia and Herzegovina and HDZ Bosnia and Herzegovina group in the Federation entity's parliament have called on the High Representative and the international community to reject pro-Bosniak pressures, impose electoral law amendments, and prevent the Federation from becoming a Bosniak state and Bosnia and Herzegovina from breaking up.
We call on the international administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina not to give in to pressures and to persevere in seeking solutions that will fully stabilise Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country of three constituent peoples and all its citizens, on Bosnia and Herzegovinas Euro-Atlantic journey, and in building a country which young people won't leave, the group of Croat parties in the Federation parliament's House of Peoples said in a statement on Saturday.
It was reported earlier this week that the international community's High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, plans to amend the electoral law and introduce a three-percent census to prevent the abuse of the election of delegates to the Federation parliament's upper house.
Since then, the pro-Bosniak parties and the public have been strongly campaigning against Schmidt. The SDP Bosnia and Herzegovina today called his move racist, while Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency member Željko Komšić said it had anti-Islamic motives.
Introducing a three-percent threshold would prevent Bosniaks in some of the Federation's ten cantons who declared themselves as Croats from being elected to the Croat group in the upper house anymore. The group is key to the election of the executive authority in the Croat-Bosniak entity.
For the October general elections, Bosniak parties have announced the election of a number of Croat delegates in order to oust from the government the leading Croat parties for which most Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina vote.
The HNS Bosnia and Herzegovina parliamentary group, which gathers Croat political parties, dismissed the pressures and campaign against Schmidt, saying that all Bosniak parties have revealed their Bosniak nationalism.
According to the Croat parties, the Bosniaks' attempt to take over control in the Federation would lead to the cancellation of the Washington and Dayton agreements, which they say might cause a new crisis and Bosnia and Herzegovina's break-up.
They say that Schmidt is trying to impose a solution that the Bosniak parties obstructed during talks on electoral reform with the mediation of the US and the EU earlier this year.
"The Bosniak side, on the other hand, advocates a status quo with the goal of transforming the Federation into a Bosniak statelet and the Croats into a political minority," the statement said.
The constituency of the peoples, as stipulated by the Constitution, and legitimate political representation, as established by the Constitutional Court in the Ljubić ruling, must be achieved in the election process, it added.
Seven Under Investigation for Smuggling Migrants
ZAGREB, 23 July 2022 - The USKOK anti-corruption office has launched an investigation into six Croatian nationals and one Bosnia and Herzegovina citizen suspected of smuggling at least 251 illegal migrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Slovenia from March to June and of earning at least HRK 287,000 in the process.
The investigation has been launched following a criminal complaint by the Istria County police.
According to USKOK, the main suspect, a 38-year-old Croatian citizen, arranged with unknowns from Serbia and Turkey the reception of a larger number of foreigners who had entered Croatia illegally from Bosnia and Herzegovina and their transfer to the Slovenian border.
The illegal migrants were each charged at least €150 to be transferred to Slovenia, USKOK suspects.
(€1 = HRK 7.5)
Croatia's Coronavirus Update: 1,654 New Cases, 8 Deaths, 1,606 Recoveries
ZAGREB, 23 July 2022 - Croatia has registered 1,654 new coronavirus cases and eight COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the national coronavirus response team reported on Saturday.
The number of active cases currently stands at 10,844, of whom 579 infected persons are being treated in hospital, including 15 placed on ventilators, while 6,033 persons are self-isolating.
Since 25 February 2020, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 1,176,519 cases of the infection have been diagnosed. The disease has claimed 16,205 lives. A total of 1,149,469 have recovered, including 1,606 in the last 24 hours.
So far, over a five million tests have been conducted, and in the last 24 hours, 4,234 people have been tested, and of them two in five turned out to be positive.
A total of 59.57 per cent of the total population, or 70.84 per cent of adults, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 68.80 per cent of the adult population have been vaccinated twice.
Croatia Continues Providing Aerial Firefighting Aid to Slovenia
ZAGREB, 23 July 2022 - Croatia on Saturday again sent a water-dropping plane and helicopter to Slovenia to help local fire-fighting forces in efforts to contain the ravaging wildfire that has been going on for days along the Slovenia-Italy border.
Croatia has been sending the CL-415 canadair and Mi-8 MTV helicopter to Nova Gorica each day over the last four days, the Croatian Defence Ministry said on Saturday.
The request for assistance was forwarded to Croatia via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
In the night between Friday and Saturday, over 800 local firefighters were engaged on the ground.
Ten villages were evacuated due to thick smoke.
The disaster has taken one life so far. On Thursday evening, a 56-year-old Italian woman, who was a volunteer civil protection operative, was killed when a burned tree trunk fell on her while she was patrolling the area along the Italian-Slovenian border hit by that wildfire that erupted in the Kras region.
According to reports by Italian media outlets, the victim Elena Lo Duca was in teams that conducted on-site inspections of the scope of the damage at the affected area when the tree fell on her and killed her.
The wildfire has affected over 2,000 hectares of land.
Slovenian Civil Protection head Srečko Šestan said two days ago that this was the largest fire in the history of independent Slovenia.
Apart from Croatia also Italy, Austria and Slovakia have sent water-dropping planes to help local firefighting forces.
According to the estimates from Slovenia, the blaze could be put out next week when some rain is expected.
Comment on Doctors' Wages Prompts Croatian Medical Chamber to Hit Back at Prime Minister and Health Minister
ZAGREB, 23 July 2022 - The Croatian Medical Chamber (HLK) on Friday said that Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's comment on doctors being among the better-paid public employees was inappropriate and it countered with the explanation that those higher salaries were the result of their working additional hours.
Asked about reports that a thousand doctors in Croatia had handed in their resignations, Prime Minister Plenković said earlier on Friday that he did not know about it, adding that doctors were among the better-paid public employees in Croatia.
"The only ones that perhaps have a higher salary are air traffic controllers, who are complaining about HRK 50,000. A stressful job. Come on," he said. The Prime Minister underscored that the government had increased salaries in health care in general, and that he didn't know when someone would be satisfied.
I think everyone needs to realise what kind of global crisis we are in, and understand that this is a time when we have to return to our joint contribution to solidarity, Plenković said.
However, the Croatian Medical Chamber accuses Plenković of having intentionally kept silent about the fact that the examples of high salaries of some doctors, revealed in media, were actually the result of of their overtime work with even 150 or 200 extra hours a month.
The Croatian Medical Chamber explains that so many hours worked in excess by doctors in hospitals were the result of shortage of specialist doctors and some of those employed professionals employed work double time to keep the hospital system functioning and make it available to patients.
The press release signed by the medical chamber's president, Krešimir Luetić blames Prime Minister Plenković and Health Minister Vili Beroš of poor management of the hospital system, "irrational public procurement in the healthcare system" and long waiting lists.
29-Hour Train Ride from Split to Rijeka? Yet Another Shocking Croatian Railways Journey
July 23, 2022 - Ever wondered about the train ride from Split to Rijeka? A look at the travel options between Croatia's second and third largest cities.
Croatia is a tourist country, where around 20 percent of the national budget depends on income from tourism. Despite this, the traffic connection between Split and Rijeka, the second and third largest cities in the Republic of Croatia on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, is very poor.
Foreign tourists or Croatian citizens who want to travel from Split to Rijeka during the summer have limited options.
The first option is, of course, traveling by car. For those who do not go to the sea by car, there is only one more option: the bus. The fastest bus ride from Split to Rijeka takes about seven hours. You don't go on the highway, which would take 2-3 hours less, but it would cost more because of tolls.
So, what about the train? A search on the Croatian Railways website shows that the train journey from Split to Rijeka takes between 22 and 29 hours, with a minimum of one transfer. Allow us to repeat - if you want to travel by train from the second largest Croatian city to the third largest Croatian city, it can take more than a day - 29 hours, writes Index.hr.
For comparison, a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok takes six days, covering 9,289 kilometers. Split is slightly more than 400 kilometers from Rijeka, or 416 kilometers, according to Google Maps. A Trans-Siberian Railway train covers about 64 kilometers in one hour, while a Croatian Railways train covers an average of about 14 kilometers in one hour on a full-day journey from Split to Rijeka. No wonder it takes a whole day if you decide to travel from Split to Rijeka by train.
Regarding air transport, there is no direct route from Split to Rijeka. It was operated by Trade Air, but the Ministry of Transport did not extend its contract in time. As a result, they stopped flying on the Split - Rijeka route at the end of April this year.
The official Trade Air website states that they hope to connect Split and Rijeka (as well as Osijek and Pula, etc.) by air again from August 15 of this year.
It is also worth noting that the Split - Rijeka flight is a PSO line. PSO stands for Public Service Obligation. This program enables countries within the European Union to co-finance airlines for flights that are not always directly commercially profitable but are of public importance.
And what about by sea? There is no longer a night ferry line that connects Split and Rijeka, on which the famous Marko Polo ferry used to travel. The Jadrolinija Rijeka - Dubrovnik line was discontinued in 2015.
Index asked Jadrolinija why:
"The decision to cancel the Rijeka - Dubrovnik line was first made in 2012 by the then Government due to the constant decline in passenger and vehicle traffic, which was caused by the construction of highways to the south, which made vehicle journeys to destinations in Dalmatia significantly shorter, so the line recorded fewer passengers. In 2015, the line was discontinued," Jadrolinija said.
However, it seems that this could change.
"Given all the circumstances and the development of highways, cooperation with the Maritime Faculty on a study on redefining the line is underway. Jadrolinija primarily maintains state lines connecting the islands with the mainland, and currently, there is no Rijeka - Split line maintained by Jadrolinija," Jadrolinija revealed.
"Croatia, as a tourist destination, is well connected to the most important markets, both by road and by air, i.e., airlines, and there are also shipping lines as a link by sea," says HTZ.
They also add that this is one of the essential prerequisites for attracting foreign guests, whose pleasant and quality stay requires a good transport infrastructure and connections within the destination, that is, the country where they are staying. The above applies to domestic tourists as well.
"Namely, with the quality transport connections of Croatian cities, we can further encourage our guests to discover other destinations and increase tourist consumption," says HTZ.
For more, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.
Manchester City Academy Training in Istria with Three Premier League Stars
July 23, 2022 - The Manchester City Academy is training in Istria for the sixth consecutive year, but this time including three Premier League champions.
For the sixth year already, the academy of the English giant arrives in Novigrad in Istria for preparations. Young Istrian footballers had the privilege of playing with them and taking selfies, reports Gol.hr.
The U-18 and U-23 teams of the Premier League champions arrived in Istria for a nine-day training session, and with them are three first-team players - Phil Foden, John Stones, and Ilkay Gundogan.
Due to strict COVID restrictions, the star trio could not go to the preparations in the United States with the first team, so Pep Guardiola sent them to Istria to prepare with the young players.
Gol.hr writes that despite all efforts, getting a short statement from one of the most expensive footballers today, Phil Foden, is practically impossible. The English club's PR team had done an excellent job hiding him.
"He is very humble, full of respect, works hard every day," City's academy director Jack Wilcox said of the England international team player and added:
"He wants to improve every minute of every day, and that is why, according to many, he is the best young player in the world."
The talented young City players, some of whom have already made a few appearances for the first team, really admire Croatian footballers, especially Luka Modrić, Ivan Rakitić, and Mateo Kovačić.
Although City can bring today's best players, they invest considerable money in their football academy.
"Any team in the Premier League can buy top talent from around the world, not just Manchester City, but the academy is much more than that. It tries to develop players who live in the local community and inspire them," said Wilcox.
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