September 28, 2020 - Slovenia's red list includes eight Croatian counties on Sunday after the Slovenian Government adopted changes in the ranking of countries on its red, orange, and green list.

24ur.com reports that during a correspondence session, the Slovenian government adopted changes to the countries on the lists unsafe for travel during the corona era.

"The Government took note of the Assessment of the Epidemiological Situation in the European Union and the Schengen Area, the Balkans and selected Third Countries, the Assessment of the Epidemiological Situation in the Countries and the European Commission's Re-open EU Recommendation, as well as the Criteria per 100,000 inhabitants by country prepared by the National Institute of Public Health. It assessed the professional justification of the restrictions from the Ordinance on ordering and implementing measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at border crossings at the external border, at checkpoints at internal borders, and in the Republic of Slovenia and decided that these restrictions should continue to apply," said the Slovenian Government on its website.

Thus, the red list includes 16 EU Member States and the Schengen area, with only administrative units with a poor epidemiological picture and 114 third countries with an uneven distribution of infections.

Regarding Croatia, the red list now includes Brod-Posavina, Dubrovnik-Neretva, Lika-Senj, Pozega-Slavonia, Sibenik-Knin, Split-Dalmatia, Virovitica-Podravina and Zadar counties. 

The orange list now includes the Croatian counties bordering the country. This means that from these areas, Slovenia can be entered with a negative coronavirus test and without having to quarantine.

Serbia and Poland are on the green list again, together with Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, and Finland, while neighboring Italy has been withdrawn from the green list. 

The changes take effect on Tuesday, September 29, 2020, and the lists are available here.

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ZAGREB, Sept 27, 2020 - Over the past 24 hours, Croatia reports 190 new cases of the coronavirus infection and three deaths, and the number of active cases currently stands at 1,316, the national COVID-19 management team said on Sunday.

There are 280 COVID patients in hospitals, including 23 who are on ventilators. In the last 24 hours, 3,945 coronavirus tests have been performed and 204 people recovered.

Currently, 9,372 people are self-isolating.

Since February 25, when the first case of the coronavirus infection was recorded in Croatia, a total of 16,197 people have contracted the disease, 14,609 have recovered, and 272 have died.

To date, 292,969 people have been tested for coronavirus.

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As Tomislav Pili/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 27th of September, 2020, the European economy, and thus the enfeebled Croatian economy, can expect another recessionary blow at the end of the year, and how much space the government will have for additional measures to support the economy amid the ongoing crisis depends on the decision to enter the Eurozone, Croatian economists estimate.

After the Eurozone economy sank by 11.8 percent in the second quarter, economic analysts and Croatian economists initially forecasted a far better situation in the second half of the year given the significant easing of coronavirus control measures in most countries.

However, the resurgence of epidemiological measures due to the jump in the number of patients in the UK, France and Spain has prompted foreign economists to revise forecasts for the fourth quarter. As of September the 22nd, Europe has 2.9 million people infected, and in Spain and France there are more than 10,000 patients a day, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

"The probability of a double decline, ie another contraction in the fourth quarter, has increased significantly," Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING, told CNBC. The fact that the situation is deteriorating was signaled by the data published on Wednesday on the value of the IHS Markita purchasing manager index for September, which, with 50.1 points, suggests that the European economy has practically stalled.

Economist Zeljko Lovrincevic thinks that the recovery, if it continues, will be slower than expected. "It's hard to say how much slower it will be. However, it's likely that the result for the third quarter will be better than the fourth ", he believes. The most difficult situation is expected in Spain and France, while the British economy, in addition to their poor epidemiological picture, will additionally be burdened by the multitude of issues surrounding Brexit.

"I expect the least problems in the Scandinavian countries. As for Germany as the engine of the European economy, the most important thing for the economy there is the recovery in China and the outcome of the US presidential election,'' points out the analyst of the Economic Institute. He believes that the Croatian economy will share the same fate of the rest of the Mediterranean, which will fare worse than the EU average.

"How much additional fiscal space Croatia has to mitigate the effects of the crisis depends on when it wants to introduce the euro. If the goal is rapid introduction, as early as 2023, then there's no fiscal space. If this isn't a set point in time, in that case, the government will give up one of the anchors of its economic policy,'' claims Lovrincevic.

Alen Kovac, the director of the Erste Economic Research Office, pointed out that it has been certain for some time that the so-called scenario V recovery won't come to pass.

"Although the decline in most EU countries this year will be somewhat shallower than expected immediately after the crisis broke out, it's becoming increasingly clear that a full recovery will take at least another two years. Our expectations are that the Eurozone will record a decline of 7.6 percent this year, which should be followed by a recovery of 5.4 percent next year. Expectations for the domestic economy are only slightly worse, mainly as a result of greater dependence on the disadvantaged tourism sector. Thus, we expect a fall in GDP around the level of 9 percent and a recovery of just over 5 percent in 2021,'' said Kovac.

He added that the arrival of colder months could worsen the epidemiological picture, but the closures we've witnessed in the spring months don't seem likely, with a relatively strong consensus on this within the entire EU.

Hrvoje Japuncic, a financial and business advisor, doesn't doubt the possibility of an economic slowdown for the enfeebled Croatian economy at the end of the year, but he believes that positive news about the results of clinical trials of several vaccine candidates will be published in October or November.

"It will bring about psychological relief to households, banks and companies. Therefore, in the first quarter of next year, I expect the growth of the European economy to accelerate,'' emphasised Japuncic.

Optimism still hasn't left the government with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic at its helm, judging by the guidelines for drafting the state budget adopted at yesterday's session. They project a decline for the Croatian economy for this year of eight percent and growth in 2021 by five percent.

At the beginning of the Government session, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic assessed the projected decline in GDP in 2020 of 8 percent as "good", which is less than the previously projected 9.4 percent. Interlocutors note that in the second wave of the pandemic, the services sector will be hit hardest, due to its characteristic of direct contact with consumers.

"The kind of separation we're witnessing suggests that most of the state's fiscal support in the period ahead will be directed precisely towards the services sector, with the aim of preserving jobs. In that context, we don't expect significant turbulence, but the epidemiological picture will certainly affect the chances that the decline will be slightly higher or lower than the aforementioned nine percent,'' said Alen Kovac.

Hrvoje Japuncic stated that the third quarter is the most important in the Croatian economy due to the results of the tourist season, and in October and November there is usually a slowdown in economic activities anyway.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 26th of September, 2020, the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), Krunoslav Capak, explained what awaits us in the coming months. He also commented on the case of an individual in a care home in Split who contracted the new coronavirus twice.

"We've put it so that whoever has proof that they got over coronavirus and was tested for it, if they come into contact with a sick person in the next three months, they won't have to self-isolate because we have evidence that they will not become sick with the disease in those three months." Capak told RTL.

When asked if it is possible that 400,000 people in Croatia have been in contact with the virus, Krunoslav Capak answered:

"No one knows the number of people who came in contact with the virus. Not even countries which have conducted much broader serological research than we have know that. We conducted this serological test on 1150 people and got the result of 2.5 percent of those carrying antibodies. If we were to copy the situation that existed when we conducted the examination then today, when we have a little more than 15,000 patients, then that number would be around 400,000.''

Krunoslav Capak said that the number of new cases is declining and that this can be seen through a larger number of tests. Although epidemiologists fear colder weather because people will spend much more time indoors, the winter holidays should look significantly different than the Easter ones.

“During Easter we had a quarantine, a lockdown. The motto was to stay at home, practically all economic and social activities were closed except for the most necessary ones. Such a situation will certainly not happen again, we now know more about the virus and we're focusing on the most effective measures to bring in. So I think Christmas will be much more relaxed than Easter was, but we'll have to stick to the measures,'' Krunoslav Capak said.

Epidemiological measures are still the only defence against the new coronavirus, and that could all finally end in the spring with the arrival of the much anticipated vaccine.

"We can't expect a large amount of vaccinations before spring. For me, that's most likely the end of the coronavirus story, and it means the vaccination of the general population. I hope that we'll be able to achieve that in the spring. In my opinion, we can't acquire collective immunity before the end of spring next year, and the good news is that the vaccine could be here by then,'' Krunoslav Capak believes.

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ZAGREB, Sept 26, 2020 - Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Korinek has said in an interview for Hina that her department will see to it that the culture and creative industries and the media sector get out of the corona crisis with as few scars as possible.

Commenting on the fact that the world media was added to the official name of her department after she was reappointed the minister in late July, Obuljen Korzinek recalls that since 2002 the ministerial department of culture has been authorized to cover the sector of media. Adding the word media to the official name of the ministry was made with the purpose of highlighting that sector, the minister explained.

Bill on electronic media on government's agenda soon

Considering concrete steps that the ministry is taking to enhance the status of the media sector, Obuljen Korzinek says in the interview published on Saturday that the draft law on electronic media is being fine-tuned by the relevant ministries and is expected to be on the government's agenda in October.

The ministry is preparing activities to release the media legislation for public consultation, she said.

Following the government aid schemes made available in April and May, and enabling the media sector to have access to credit lines for which the government provides collateral, we are considering some other measures to support the media sector within the European Union's funds for recovery, she says.

"We are conducting dialogue with professional associations to finds modalities for assistance aimed at enhancing the status of journalists," the minister said.

"All those assistance measures should be carefully prepared so that they remain neutral and do not affect the independence of media."

 Asked about a growing number of defamation suits against reporters, the minister reiterated that politicians and office-holders should refrain from taking libel suits against journalists and media.

"I am strongly for the preservation of media freedoms as an important pillar for the development of democracy."

In parallel, every citizen who feels to have been defamed is entitled to the court protection, she said recalling that in the first term of the Andrej Plenkovic cabinet abolished the criminal libel act.

Web portal with criteria for the assessment of epidemiological risks for music events

Considering the music industry in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, the minister says that the authorities in cooperation with the Croatian Musicians Union are hammering out the project of the support to this industry.

One of the steps in the preparation of a web portal for the assessment of epidemiological risks for music events which will standardize the criteria for all kinds of events, she says.

Restoring quake-damaged listed buildings to take a lot of times

Commenting on the damage caused by the 22 March quake to monuments and listed buildings in the capital city and its environs, the minister said that immediately after the earthquake, the ministry experts and representatives of the department of Zagreb's city planning system toured the damaged sites and held consultations so as to immediately respond to the situation.

Conservators and restorers have been engaged in making a list of the damaged buildings and we were also actively involved in the preparation of the law on the removal of the consequences of the earthquake and on preparing the documentation for the European Solidarity Fund, she says underlining that the restoration of the registered sites of heritage significance would take a lot of time.

It will require a complex multi-disciplinary approach with the aim of improving the urban standards in Zagreb, alongside preserving the historical center, she explained.

Damage done by the quake to listed buildings is estimated at 7 billion euros.

Commenting on the achievements of her first term in office, the culture minister says that that the outlays earmarked for the ministry rose both in the absolute figures and their proportion in the total budget, reaching now a 1% share.

This has been achieved through a rise in the original sources of funding from the budget as well as through the better absorption of the EU funds, she added.

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ZAGREB, Sept 26, 2020 - In the last 24 hours, 212 new cases and three COVID-19-related deaths have been registered in Croatia, while the number of active cases stands at 1,333, the national COVID-19 response team said on Saturday.

Among the active cases are 271 people receiving hospital treatment, of whom 25 are on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, 4,575 tests have been carried out, 102 infected people have recovered, and 9,257 people are currently in self-isolation.

Over 16,000 people diagnosed with COVID to date, 14,405 have recovered

Since February 25, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 16,007 persons have been diagnosed with this infectious disease, 269 have died and 14,405 have recovered.

A total of 289,024 people have been tested to date.

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ZAGREB, Sept 25, 2020 - The crises that have impacted the world in 2020 show that commitment to multilateralism is more relevant than ever, Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in an address at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, calling for reform of UN.

The crises of 2020, such as the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent economic downturn, "clearly showed that our collective commitment to multilateralism is more relevant than ever," Plenkovic said via video link.

The current crises must not lead to isolationism in the international community but motivate readiness for cooperation in the spirit of solidarity and mutual support, and no other organization is better placed than the United Nations for global delivery of the goals of international cooperation, he said.

That is why "we need a United Nations fit for the 21st century," Plenkovic said, calling for a reform of UN, including its founding document, the UN Charter, as well as of the Security Council, the most powerful body in the UN in which relations reflect the situation at the end of World War II.

"Our organization has to maintain its core values and principles on which it has been founded but it must also reflect the realities and needs of our times," he added.

Critics often call out the UN for allegedly irrational spending, slowness to act, failure to implement its decisions, and bias in adopting them.

The organization's budget last year lacked 768 million of a total of 2.85 billion US dollars because 51 countries did not meet their financial obligations, including Brazil and the USA, Reuters has reported.

Experts underline that the financial problems are a symptom of a broader crisis of confidence in that institution.

Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina Croats

Apart from going down in history as a year of crises, 2020 is also a year of anniversaries - the 75th anniversary of the UN and the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the Dayton-Paris Peace Agreement, which put an end to the "bloodiest war in Europe since the Second World War," said the Croatian PM.

Meanwhile, this part of Europe "has profoundly changed for the better but some problems still prevail and merit our full attention".

Croatia believes that the anniversary of the Dayton peace agreement should be used to reflect on its achievements as well as the contemporary situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Plenkovic, calling for full equality for Croats as a constituent people in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as for the adoption of appropriate election law to prevent electoral engineering.

Plenkovic recalled the Zagreb Summit of 20 years ago and the second edition of that event, held this year online during Croatia's EU presidency, as well as the country's unequivocal support for the European perspective of Western Balkan countries.

Looking back, much has been achieved, much has changed for the better. Looking ahead, sincere reconciliation is essential to regional stability. It can be built only on truth and grounded in facts, in conjunction with finding all the remaining missing persons and rendering justice for all victims, he said.

Plenkovic also stressed in his address that he was proud that for the first time ever Croatia has a candidate for a judge at the International Court of Justice - an international law professor and vice-dean for international cooperation of the Zagreb University Faculty of Law, Maja Sersic.

"Besides her professional qualities, we believe that her election would also be important for achieving a better gender balance and fairer participation of states within the Court's composition."

Plenkovic also recalled that Croatia was dealing with the consequences of a disastrous earthquake that hit Zagreb in March and thanked world leaders for sending messages of support and offer assistance.

Vaccine for all and protection of the planet

Plenkovic welcomed the UN's resolution on a "Comprehensive and Coordinated Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic" and said that "it clearly demonstrates the need for a global joint approach in addressing the impact and consequences of the pandemic."

"The vaccine must be available to as many as possible and we should spare no effort to make it so," he said.

He also spoke about "the perils of global climate change, which will be the challenge of this century."

He said that world leaders must not ignore the fact that "the past five years hold the highest record for global ocean temperatures", noting that "the oceans play a central role in regulating the Earth's climate."

"Ocean plastic pollution is also unfolding at an alarming rate," he added.

"If we do not act now, the damage (to our planet) will become irreparable," he said.

"Let us, therefore, unite as nations and assume our responsibility to create a healthier, equal, and more sustainable world for the generations to come," Plenkovic said.

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September 26, 2020 - The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has published a new list of countries by zones/colors according to the epidemiological situation. Istria and Varazdin are now on the green list.

HRTurizam reports that it is important to emphasize precisely the regional approach to travel restrictions, which in Croatia tourism entrepreneurs have been fighting for since the beginning of the COVID crisis, and the European Commission's proposal is on that path.

Thanks to this approach, although most of Croatia is still in the red zone, according to the newly updated list - Istria and Varazdin are on the "green" list, thus enabling Belgian tourists to travel to these two regions.

Namely, the European Commission presented a proposal for Recommendations on a coordinated approach to restrictions on free movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the proposal identifies four main areas where close cooperation between the Member States is needed:

- common criteria and thresholds for the Member States to introduce travel restrictions
- mapping common criteria with an agreed color code
- a common framework for measures applicable to travelers from high-risk areas
- clearly and timely informing the public about all restrictions

Member States should provide data on new cases to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control on a weekly basis and should also provide data for the regional level to ensure that measures can be targeted only in areas where it is absolutely necessary. 

Recall, on Wednesday, Germany added regions from 11 European countries to the list of high-risk areas, including Lika-Senj County, rejecting the last hope of reviving tourism at a time when many countries are threatened by a second wave of coronavirus.

The Robert Koch Institute list includes major tourist destinations such as the French regions of Center-Val de Loire, Brittany and Normandy, Lika-Senj County in Croatia, and the Notranjsko-kraška region in Slovenia.

The list also includes the capitals of Ireland, Portugal, and Denmark, the Dutch province of Utrecht, the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, most of the Czech Republic, the county of Gyor in western Hungary, and Romania's Covasna.

The inclusion in the list of risk areas usually follows when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes recommendations against necessary trips to the region in question.

Germany warns against traveling to regions in the European Union where more than 50 are infected per 100,000 people per week.

Due to the spread of the epidemic, Germany has so far included Dubrovnik-Neretva, Požega-Slavonia, Šibenik-Knin, Split-Dalmatia, Brod-Posavina, Virovitica-Podravina, and Zadar counties on the list of epidemiologically risky areas in Croatia.

Declaring an area risky means that those returning from vacation must be tested for coronavirus and remain in self-isolation until they receive a negative test result.

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As Novac writes on the 25th of September, 2020, in addition to Croatian economic recovery, the withdrawal of money from European Union funds, including the new New Generation instrument, will have a decisive impact on budget movements, not only next year, but throughout the projected period until 2023. Will EU cash be the saviour in this crisis situation? Probably.

The total budget revenues, as stated in the guidelines for drafting the budget presented by the Minister of Finance Zdravko Maric, will amount to 147.1 billion kuna next year, which is 25 billion kuna more than this year. Compared to back in 2019, they increased by seven billion kuna. Revenues from aid are growing the most, and they're mostly related to EU cash: they will amount to 25.1 billion kuna, 7 billion kuna more than this year, and compared to 2019, they will increase by as much as 10.3 billion kuna. Of the other revenues, the level from last year, also known as the pre-crisis year, should almost reach the revenues from the VAT, with a growth of 23.9 percent and will amount to 54.1 billion kuna, only 700 million kuna less than last year.

Mainly due to the increased withdrawal of money from EU funds and the availability of that EU cash, the Croatian Government will be able to afford an increase in expenditures of 10.4 billion kuna (7.1 percent), so it will amount to a total of 157.6 billion kuna. Expenditures for material things will grow the most, by 16.6 percent or 2.3 billion kuna, and most of this increase will be financed from EU cash. For these needs, 9.1 billion kuna will be withdrawn, 1.8 billion kuna more than this year, and it will be used for "repairing the damage caused by the Zagreb earthquake and on material expenditures in state-owned health care institutions", as well as on other projects and activities within the Competitiveness and Cohesion Operational Programme.

Another important expense for the state budget is the compensation of revenues to local units due to the reduction of income tax. The government has earmarked 2.2 billion kuna for this purpose. A total of 33.6 billion kuna will be spent on budget aid next year, which is 6.5 billion kuna more than this year. In addition to assistance to local units, this increase includes additional allocations for contributions to the EU budget, then equalisation funds for decentralised county functions, as well as expenditures for employees, and it will increase by 377.7 million kuna when compared to 2020.

When it comes to staff expenditures, the government is clearly counting on successful negotiations with the unions. These expenditures are planned in the amount of 23.6 billion kuna, which is 1.3 billion kuna more than this year.

Expenditures for pensions, as a result of regular adjustment, will increase by 1.2 billion kuna, and social assistance funds will increase by 407.5 million kuna.

Having in mind the experience from the past few years, which shows that the withdrawal of EU cash is significantly less than planned in the end, the question arises as to how realistic it is to expect that the government will manage to achieve these rather ambitious announcements in 2021. Danijel Nestic from the Institute of Economics says that there is indeed a systemic problem in budget planning and that revenues from European Union funds are constantly overestimated.

''As these revenues are lower than planned in the end, the expenditures for which they're planned are also reduced. This doesn't affect the increase of the deficit, which is certainly very important for the Ministry of Finance, but the fact is that better planning is necessary in case of withdrawal of EU cash,'' explained Nestic, adding that he isn't ruling out the possibility that the planning for such things has been improved.

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ZAGREB, Sept 25, 2020 - In the last 24 hours, 223 new coronavirus cases and five COVID-19-related deaths have been registered in Croatia, bringing the number of active cases to 1,226, the national COVID-19 response team said on Friday.

Among the active cases are 273 people receiving hospital treatment, of whom 22 are on ventilators.

In the last 24 hours, 5,414 tests have been carried out, 192 infected people have recovered, and 8,898 people are currently in self-isolation.

Since February 25, when the first case was confirmed in Croatia, 15,795 persons have been diagnosed with COVID-19, 266 have died and 14,303 have recovered.

A total of 284,449 people have been tested to date.

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