ZAGREB, 8 Sept, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Wednesday organised a welcoming ceremony for Croatian athletes who had competed at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, congratulating them on their achievements.

Addressing the athletes, Plenković said that the government appreciated and was very grateful for their achievements and promotion of Croatia on the global scene.

He said that his government had increased investments in sports by 100% and would continue to invest.

Attending the welcoming ceremony for the Croatian Olympic and Paralympic athletes were also Finance Minister Zdravko Marić, Tourism and Sports Minister Nikolina Brnjac, Labour Minister Josip Aladrović, Defence Minister Mario Banožić and Croatian Olympic Committee president Zlatko Mateša.

During the 23 July-8 August Olympic Games in Tokyo, Croatia won eight medals: three golds, three silvers and two bronzes.

Croatian athletes with disabilities who competed at the 24 August- 5 September Paralympic Games won seven medals - three silvers and four bronzes.

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ZAGREB, 6 Sept, 2021 (Hina) - Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Monday extended his best wishes to the Jewish community on the occasion of the holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, with the traditional greeting "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year".

In the message he sent on his own behalf and on the behalf of his cabinet on the occasion of the 5782 Jewish year, Plenković wished an abundance of hope, health and prosperity to Jewish believers.

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September the 3rd, 2021 - PM Andrej Plenkovic hasn't been shy in expressing his feelings of pride towards what has so far been an excellent tourist season. The predictions back at the beginning of the year as the vaccine rollout was plagued with issues and lockdowns were still ''in fashion'' weren't good at all, and in light of that, the height of the Croatian tourist season of 2021 has been rather remarkable.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatian PM Andrej Plenkovic took to Twitter to comment on the new ECDC corona map, according to which the Croatian coast has remained orange, but some parts of Croatia are unfortunately now in red. These areas are Slavonia, as well as Sisak-Moslavina and Karlovac counties.

"According to the new ECDC map, the Croatian coast has remained orange even at the beginning of September. Foreign tourists have recognised Croatia as a safe destination and we could exceed 70 percent of the tourist results from the pre-crisis 2019. With responsible behaviour and with vaccination, we can protect the health and economy of Croatia!'' wrote PM Andrej Plenkovic proudly on Twitter.

It's worth remembering that Croatia's traditional tourism competitors across the rest of the Mediterranean generally had a worse epidemiological picture, with Spain, popular with Northern European tourists such as Germans and Brits having an extremely unfortunate situation on its hands. The whole of Greece, also popular with the above, is in red or crimson, while Cyprus is in crimson.

The whole of Portugal is also marked in red, as is France. Southern and central Italy are in red, while most other Italian regions are in orange. Croatia did excellently and managed to maintain an extremely favourable epidemiological situation throughout the height of the tourist season, which can be seen by the brilliant results and economic recovery.

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ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Thursday commented on the latest ECDC map on which Croatia's coast has stayed orange, saying that foreign tourists had recognized Croatia as a safe destination and that this year's tourism results could exceed 70% of tourism results in the pre-crisis year 2019.

"According to the new ECDC map, the Croatian coast has stayed orange into September. Foreign tourists have recognized Croatia as a safe destination and we could exceed 70% of the tourism results from the pre-crisis year 2019," Plenković said on his Twitter account.

Prema novoj karti @ECDC_EU, hrvatska obala ostala je ? i do početka rujna. Strani turisti prepoznali su ?? kao sigurnu destinaciju te bismo mogli i premašiti 70% turističkih rezultata iz pretkrizne 2019. Odgovornim ponašanjem i cijepljenjem čuvajmo i zdravlje i gospodarstvo ??! pic.twitter.com/uFZY36C4We

— Andrej Plenković (@AndrejPlenkovic) September 2, 2021

He concluded that with responsible conduct and vaccination public health and the national economy were being protected.

According to the latest European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control map, released on Thursday, eastern and central Croatia have turned red while the coast and northern Croatia have stayed orange.

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ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday at the beginning of his cabinet's meeting that amendments to the relevant legislation could be made regarding tacitly accepted overdrafts of consumers.

Earlier on Thursday, Plenković met with Croatian National Bank (HNB) Governor Boris Vujčić, and he informed his cabinet that they had agreed that the HNB would provide the Ministry of Finance with a thorough analysis of this topic that has made headlines recently.

The government is seeking the best solutions, and if necessary, we will change the law, he added.

The premier mentioned a possibility of reducing the effective interest rate, which would also include the fee, in the way that it would not adversely affect clients who use the instrument of tacitly agreed overdraft.

The solution must enable better dissemination of information and a lower interest rate, according to Plenković.

On Monday, the HNB recommended that until regulations on tacitly accepted overdrafts were amended, commercial banks should apply the effective interest rate and make it possible for their clients to cover those overdrafts through installment payments or reduce overdrafts. The central bank also noted that reports about mass-scale cancellation of overdrafts by banks were not true.

This issue as well as the HNB's initiative to amend the relevant regulations in order to set the maximum interest charged on tacitly accepted overdrafts have stirred up a lot of discussion in the public.

Plenković said that the government was committed to the protection of consumers and added that he convened a meeting for the next week with representatives of the commercial banks that offer tacitly agreed overdrafts to their clients.

He went on to say that according to the information presented by Vujčić, the range of interest rates on overdrafts in Croatia were practically within the average in the EU and that the amount in overdrafts decreased by two billion kunas in the nominal terms in the last years.

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ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday that the government would do everything to accelerate the process of post-earthquake reconstruction, and recalled that new tenders for about 4,000 houses in Banovina would be advertised already today and tomorrow.

"We will make every effort to speed up that process... and the Ministry of Construction and State Assets will present a comprehensive proposal of measures and possible legal changes which should make the entire reconstruction process more efficient and faster," Plenković said at the beginning of a government session.

As for the beginning of the new school year, the prime minister expressed satisfaction with the increase in the number of vaccinated persons in the school system.

"They set a good example and motive to those that haven't done that yet," he said.

Currently, 57.5% of the teaching staff in primary and secondary schools have been given at least one shot against COVID-19 and in tertiary education, this percentage is higher, 64.5%,  Education Minister Radovan Fuchs said on Wednesday.

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ZAGREB, 1 Sept, 2021 - Croatia and Slovenia have improved their relationship during the term of the incumbent Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said at the start of the 16th Bled Strategic Forum in the Slovenian lakeside town of Bled on Wednesday. 

"I think that during the term of Prime Minister Janez Janša we have established excellent dialogue, excellent communication and cooperation. Economic relations, tourism, outstanding issues - they are all being dealt with to the satisfaction of both countries," Plenković said.

He added that unresolved issues between the two countries, such as the border dispute, should be addressed in ways that would not harm their mutual relations, and that this was possible during the term of the present government.

Plenković is attending a panel on the future of Europe, the theme of this year's forum, which Slovenian Foreign Minister Anže Logar has described as "the strongest yet".

On the margins of the gathering, the Croatian prime minister is due to meet with Prime Minister Janša, European Council President Charles Michel and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Earlier in the day, Plenković talked with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. He is also expected to meet with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, but not bilaterally.

The Croatian prime minister was also due to meet with Montenegrin Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, but the Montenegrin delegation has cancelled its arrival.

The forum is also being attended by European Parliament President David Sassoli, Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Várhelyi, Commission Vice President Dubravka Šuica, the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, North Macedonia, Poland and Albania, High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt and two members of Bosnia and Herzegovina's tripartite presidency, Šefik Džaferović and Željko Komšić.

Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman will join the two-day forum on Thursday, when he will speak at a panel on cooperation in the Adriatic Sea.

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ZAGREB, 29 Aug, 2021 - French President Emmanuel Macron, one of the most important European politicians, will pay a working visit to Croatia, the Jutarnji List daily reports in its Sunday issue.

Even though the exact date of the visit has still not been agreed, it is expected to happen sometime in October or November, a high source at the Foreign Ministry has told the daily.

The visit is seen by Zagreb as proof of increasingly strong ties between France and Croatia, which could be described as a strategic partnership, particularly since the Croatian Air Force decided to buy French-made Rafale combat jet, the daily says.

A close associate to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has said that Croatian-French relations have been increasingly good, even though that was not so at the beginning.

"In the early 1990s, the then French President Francois Mitterrand supported the Serb side in the wars in ex-Yugoslavia but Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Alain Juppé  pursued a more balanced policy. We now have very good bilateral relations, partly also owing to the close relationship between PM Plenković and President Macron," the associate said.

"The visit is expected to help deepen the economic cooperation between France and Croatia and the talks will also definitely focus on the EU's strategic policy. France is not very much in favour of EU enlargement but it has slightly modified its position, thanks to PM Plenković's engagement, and now it supports in principle the accession of Western Balkan countries, naturally, within a reasonable time," the official said.

PM Plenković said earlier this week that "security-wise, the purchase of (French) military aircraft strategically changes the way Croatia is perceived as it is about to significantly change its status in military terms." France is leading the process of strengthening European defence, in which, judging by Plenković's statements, Croatia will be given an important role, Jutarnji List says.

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ZAGREB, 28 Aug, 2021 - A member of parliament from the Croatian Sovereignists party, Marko Milanović Litre, said on Saturday that his party was launching a campaign for a referendum on the introduction of the euro, criticising the government for ignoring citizens' opinion on the matter.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Croatian National Bank Governor Boris Vujčić and a whole set of Brussels bureaucrats have decided on their own that Croatia should join the euro area, Milanović Litre said in a Facebook post, noting that his party had launched a campaign to protect the national currency, the kuna.

"Referendum is the only way to accomplish that," he said.

Criticising Plenković and his government's attitude to referendum initiatives and what he called disregard for citizens' role in them, Milanović Litre said that that attitude was evidenced by Plenković's recent statement that "from a formal and legal point of view, a referendum on the introduction of the euro was already held in 2012 and a new one is not necessary."

The MP said that ballots for the 2012 referendum on Croatia's accession to the EU, to which Plenković was referring, featured only one question: "Are you in favour of Croatia's accession to the European Union?" and that the referendum campaign made no mention of accession to the euro area.

The Croatian people have the right to state their opinion on all important topics that affect their lives, notably decisions whereby a part of their hard-won sovereignty is ceded to Brussels, said Milanović Litre, adding that Croatia was poorly prepared for EU membership.

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ZAGREB, 26 August 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday that there would be no tight lockdown and called on citizens to show personal responsibility and get vaccinated against COVID-19.

It is crystal clear that Croatia will not opt for a tight lockdown, the PM said after a government meeting.

He said that the government had secured sufficient amounts of vaccines against coronavirus.

"The threat (of the spread of the disease) will be considerably lower, provided that people get vaccinated, comply with basic measures: wearing masks, keeping a social distance, and airing rooms," Plenković said when asked by the press to comment on President Zoran Milanović's statement that the current anti-epidemic rules no longer made sense and that Croatia should follow the example of Sweden in managing the epidemic.

Urging citizens to behave responsibly, Plenković said that no rewards would be given to those who decided to get a jab.

"I firmly believe in common sense, prudence, and benevolence of our people and in them being well informed," Plenković said when asked about the possible imposition of more stringent rules.

"We do not have the luxury of being populists, demagogues, speculators, or provocateurs. We must be responsible and make decisions to the benefit of all," the premier said.

He added that the lifting of restrictions would mean that there would be no more COVID grants to businesses.

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