ZAGREB, 10 Oct, 2021 - The e-Citizens system could be called a coronavirus profiteer as it boomed during the pandemic, with more than 1.5 million registered users, Večernji List daily said on Sunday.

Although the appetites of the Central State Office for Digital Society Development, which operates the system, are much bigger, the number of registered citizens is almost twice as high as before the pandemic, the paper said.

The first incentive came from the e-passes introduced in spring 2020, during the first lockdown. They were required for crossing county lines and could be obtained much faster via e-Citizens.

The second motive for registering were the COVID certificates. On 1 June 2021, e-Citizens had 1,288,211 users. Since the moment the certificates could be obtained digitally until early September, the number of users went up by 115,255, while the number of those who registered only for the EU Digital COVID Certificate service in that period was 498,842.

The latest incentive for registration, bringing 83,500 new users, was the recently held first phase of the population census, during which citizens could self-enumerate online via e-Citizens.

For more about Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 18 March, 2021 - Croatia had 149 unpopulated settlements in the last population census ten years ago and there will likely be more in the upcoming one, it was said on Thursday at a meeting of the parliamentary environment and nature protection committee.

The committee debated a 2013-19 report on Croatia's territory which confirms that settlements in border and mountain regions continue to die out, while concentrating in central Croatia, including Zagreb.

The data were presented by Sunčana Habrun of the Physical Planning Ministry, including on planned construction and business zones.

Planned construction zones cover about 400,000 hectares, 7% of the state territory, and business- about 112,000 hectares, 2% of the state territory.

"Is that a lot? Little?" wondered Juro Brkan of the ruling HDZ.

Habrun said it was too much and that Croatia had more than enough construction zones. Those zones are "extensively" planned given Croatia's situation and demographic figures, she added.

She said it was up to local government to see how to fight off demands for expanding construction zones.

Rovinj has decided that it wants no more hospitality and tourism zones because they endanger sustainable tourism development, she said.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 5 March, 2021 - The Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) has put its proposal to amend the Census Act to public consultation until 12 March, under which this year's census would be held from 13 September to 17 October.

Under the existing law, the census was to be conducted from 1 April to 7 May, but was postponed until June because of the coronavirus pandemic and last year's earthquakes. It has now been further postponed until September, with the DZS recommending that it be conducted from 13 September to 17 October based on the situation as at 31 August at midnight.

The census would be conducted in two phases. The first phase would take place from 13 to 26 September, when citizens would fill in the census form online using the e-Citizens application, while the second phase would be held from 27 September to 17 October and would include personal interviews by census-takers.

The previous census was taken in 2011.