ZAGREB, June 7, 2019 - Outgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday expressed support for Croatia's aspirations to enter the Schengen Area and the eurozone, saying that he hoped a positive recommendation for Croatia to join the area of passport-free travel would be sent to the European Council before his term in office ends on October 31.

I want us to make a recommendation to the Council for Croatia to join the Schengen Area during the term of this European Commission, Juncker told a press conference in Zagreb which he addressed with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. Juncker arrived in Croatia on Thursday for a two-day visit which started in Dubrovnik and ends in Zagreb.

Plenković, too, said that he expected Croatia to receive a positive recommendation to access the Schengen Area before the end of the current EC, underscoring that a big job had been done in that regard.

"Croatia expects to get a positive evaluation of its progress in fulfilling the criteria to access the Schengen Area before the end of this European Commission's term. In that regard, Croatia has done a lot," Plenković said.

"Immediately after joining the EU we used the first 120 million euro, and after that an additional 120 million euro. Croatia is strengthening its external border and improving police cooperation with neighbouring countries and we are confident that we will meet the final requirement so that the EC can make a positive assessment and forward a motion to the Council," he said.

As far as the eurozone is concerned, the EC president believes that Croatia is completely prepared to join the ERM II mechanism soon.

The European Central Bank will decide on the matter and the EC will support its position, Juncker underscored.

More Schengen Area news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, June 7, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Thursday informed European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker about the course of reconstruction of Dubrovnik Airport and the construction of the Pelješac Bridge, both co-financed from European funds, saying Dubrovnik-Neretva County was among the most successful counties in European fund absorption.

By visiting southern Croatia, Juncker began a two-day visit to the country. On Friday, he will arrive in Zagreb.

"We presented to... President Juncker the course and realisation of an important project, the reconstruction of Dubrovnik Airport's infrastructure, which is co-financed from European funds in the amount of 155 million euro," Plenković said.

The reconstruction is worth 225 million euro, with 158 million euro coming from the European Regional Development Fund. In the first stage, completed at the end of 2016, the terminal was built for 64 million euro. The second stage, whose completion is planned for the end of 2020, includes the renovation of a 3,300-metre airstrip and building a new fuel storage.

Plenković said the reconstruction of the airport would significantly increase the transport capacity of the city and the county as well as the quality of tourism in, as he said, the southernmost and most attractive part of Croatia.

"We also informed Mr Juncker about the construction of the Pelješac Bridge, a strategic project for connecting Croatia's south with the rest of the country. This project is progressing very well and is also co-financed from European funds in the amount of 357 euro million," he said.

He underlined that European funds are being used in Dubrovnik-Neretva County to renew the water infrastructure, the cultural heritage, student dormitories and many other projects.

Plenković went on to say that he and Juncker would talk about the work of next European Council and European Commission, the enlargement policy, including a possible Zagreb summit on the topic, the multiannual financial framework and Croatia's priorities for chairing the Council in the first half of 2020.

He said Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Gabrijela Žalac said at today's cabinet meeting that Croatia had contracted 69% of EU funds available in the current budget period.

"That's very good news and all departments are continuing to work on making that absorption really effective, so that part of the public investments coming from co-financing from EU funds can be felt on the overall economic growth."

More news about Croatia and the European Union can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, June 6, 2019 - Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović held talks in Brussels on Thursday with EU Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Croatia's future Schengen Area membership.

Avramopoulos commended the remarkable progress Croatia has achieved in the past 18 months, the Interior Ministry said in a press release.

The two officials agreed common activities for the final verification of the technical conditions for Croatia's entry to the Schengen Area.

The membership is one of Croatia's priorities. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković recently told Politico.eu that his wish is for Croatia to join by 2024. Last year Croatia submitted to the European Commission a document saying it believes it has met all the recommendations in all eight areas.

The director of Bosnia and Herzegovina's border police Zoran Galić on Thursday once again warned that that security agency lacked hundreds of personnel and all efforts to secure the border and control the influx of migrants until now were in vain.

"We are currently lacking four hundred employees," Galić said at a ceremony marking the 19th anniversary of the establishment of the country's border police. He underscored that border police are exhausted because they are continually working extra hours.

The problem of the shortage of workers should be partially resolved when 100 cadets graduate, but filling vacancies still depends on political decisions.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has a 1,600 kilometre border with other countries. It shares its longest border, of 1,000 km, with Croatia. There are 83 official border crossings and 55 are categorised as international crossings while the others are for cross-border communities.

Deputy Security Minister Mijo Krešić underlined that illegal migration continues to be the biggest challenge to border police. He added that state policy toward that problem has to change as soon as possible because new challenges will follow, particularly after Croatia joins the Schengen Area.

More Schengen news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, June 6, 2019 - Croatia annually loses 2.5 billion kuna in sales income in key product sectors due to counterfeiting and piracy, and the loss at the EU level amounts to as much as 451 billion kuna, with clothing being the most affected product sector, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) says.

EUIPO monitored the economic impact of counterfeiting in 11 key product sectors in the EU in the period from 2012 to 2016.

The analysis covered the following product sectors: cosmetics and personal care; clothing, footwear and accessories; sports goods; toys and games; jewellery and watches; handbags and luggage, recorded music; spirits and wine; pharmaceuticals; pesticides; and smartphones.

EUIPO, based in Alicante, Spain, estimates that counterfeiting and piracy cause an annual loss of 2.5 billion kuna in Croatia, which is 10.7% of sales in the 11 product sectors. At the EU level, the sales income loss amounts to as much as 451 billion kuna.

The per capita loss in Croatia is estimated at 600 kuna annually, while at EU level it exceeds 800 kuna.

The job loss caused by counterfeiting and piracy is close to 4,000 in Croatia and up to 468,000 across Europe, EUIPO executive director Christian Archambeau warns.

Apart from analysing counterfeit and piracy products, EUIPO also analysed demand for such products.

Lower prices, availability and a low degree of social stigma related to such activities encourage consumers to buy counterfeit products or illegally access content protected by copyright, shows a report on intellectual property right infringements in 2019.

Croatia's clothing sector is the most affected by counterfeiting, with losses amounting to 928 million kuna annually, followed by the drug industry.

The youngest EU member reports high losses also in the following product sectors: smartphones (340 million kuna), cosmetics (214 million kuna), and spirits and wine (122 million kuna).

Compared with the first analysis, from 2018, the updated analysis shows that at EU level, the losses have dropped in most products sectors, except for clothing, footwear and accessories and cosmetics and personal care.

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, June 6, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday that election interference was one of the biggest challenges facing democracy.

Plenković spoke about the security challenges of the digital era in a lecture on Croatia's EU presidency in 2020 which he gave in Zagreb.

Interference in elections "is one of the biggest challenges for the functioning of modern-day democracy," he said, warning that a large number of voters obtained information from unreliable sources.

Commenting on the recent election for the European Parliament, he said that "mainstream parties" had prevailed.

The drop in the popularity of the People's Party and the Socialists has been counterbalanced by the increase in the popularity of the liberals, Greens and conservatives, said Plenković.

Speaking of the priorities of Croatia's EU presidency in the first half of 2020, Plenković cited demography, growth, employment and the youth, noting that low population growth rates were a problem in as many as 14 EU member states.

He said that Croatia supported the policy of EU enlargement and that enlargement would help reduce the number of security problems. There is no alternative to the enlargement process, he said.

The Croatian PM believes that enlargement has slowed down the growth of extremist parties in big EU member countries, which is why mainstream parties have taken over some of their rhetoric. "Without that, Bulgaria and Romania would already be in the Schengen area," he said, but noted that the Schengen area of passport-free movement no longer existed "in its original form".

"Enabling enlargement will require a reform of the Dublin Regulation," he said.

Under the Dublin Regulation, asylum seekers stay in the first EU country they have entered, which is particularly opposed by Italy, which demands an even distribution of asylum seekers, which, in turn, is opposed by member states of the Visegrad Group (Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia).

Plenković stressed that balance should be found between "compliance with positive European regulations and agreement on how to deal with the rest of the burden of migration movements that are behind us." He also stressed that all countries were agreed that the EU's external border had to stay impenetrable.

Plenković also noted that there was not enough awareness of the benefits and possibilities of EU membership in Croatia, and that countries that had joined the EU in 2004 were today "different countries".

"Those 15 years have changed everything. They have changed the economy and mentality in those countries," said Prime Minister Plenković.

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, June 3, 2019 - The European Commission has chosen six Croats who have distinguished themselves in humanitarian work or in environmentalist activities financially supported by the EU, and the selection of those "local heroes" has been conducted within the programme called "EU protects".

They are praised for their work which has had a big impact in their respective communities. "It’s the EU, which makes it possible for these heroes to come together to address the problems that go beyond national borders, whether organised crime or climate change," says the EC.

The EU Protect programme was launched six months ago across the European Union member states.

In Croatia, the four awarded people – three women and a man – were proclaimed local heroes for their humanitarian activism, and the remaining two "heroes " have distinguished themselves in the protection of the Adriatic Sea.

One of those six Croatian heroes is student Melani Boris from the Zamisli association that supports students with disabilities.

Benefitting from the services of the association, Melani joined their ERASMUS+ project, Support for Students with Disabilities in 2016, and began promoting these students’ right to live independently, the Commission says in the explanation.

She is now the manager of the Personal Assistant project, where she works as a mentor to welcome new beneficiaries of the project. She is also a part of a campaign to provide housing and support to young people with disabilities who wish to live independently.

The second hero is Tatjana Aćimović, art director of the Children's Rights Festival.

"For the past 10 years, Tatjana Aćimović has been helping to organise a festival that promotes children’s rights by screening European films, many of which were funded by the European Union. This is the first and only public event in Croatia accessible to people with visual or hearing impairments."

Mira Katalenić, a volunteer for the Croatian Guide Dog and Mobility Association, is also one of the three female local heroes.

Katalenić joined the group of activists working for the Croatian Guide Dog and Mobility Association at the beginning of the 1990s. The association carries out several EU-funded projects, one of which provides mobile support services to create conditions for better inclusion of blind people in the labour market and society.

"All Mira’s time and energy is now devoted towards developing orientation and mobility programmes for blind people in Croatia, assistance dog programmes for people with disabilities and children with developmental difficulties."

Budimir Šobot Buda of the Association for Disabled People, has been chosen for his dedicated 18-year-long activism aimed at raising awareness of the needs of people with autism.

"At the Association for Disabled People in the town of Petrinja, Sisak-Moslavina County, Budimir works on two main projects that receive EU funds. His aim is to make sure that autistic people have the same rights as everybody else. In his effort to raise awareness of autism, he broke a world record by spending 24 minutes and 11 seconds under water without air."

Researcher Draško Holcer, who works as a senior curator at Croatian Natural History Museum, has distinguished himself in in ecology and the conservation of large marine vertebrates..

This marine biologist currently coordinates LIFE Euroturtles, an EU-funded project, and helps sea turtles in the Northern Adriatic. He and his team have worked with LED lights as a tool to mitigate sea turtle capture in fishing nets.

The third male hero in this group is Tonći Prodan, who was a maritime safety consultant at Croatia's National Protection and Rescue Directorate during the international field exercise Adriatic 2018, and who was proclaimed a local hero for his efforts to protect the Adriatic Sea.

Funded by the European Union, this large-scale spill pollution exercise aimed to coordinate action among the concerned countries around the Adriatic Sea. Tonći led a team of eminent Croatian experts and scientists from the security field. He holds a doctorate on "The US and the EU in combating terrorism - strategy, models and results" and is a European and world-renowned expert in the field of terrorism and security threats.

More news on the European Commission can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, May 30, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Wednesday evening in a statement for Croatian Radio Television refuted media headlines about a possible candidacy for European Commission president, saying that his appointment as one of the six negotiators from the strongest European political groups for the heads of European institutions was "a serious job of finding a consensus."

"The purpose of yesterday's meeting of the European Council was primarily to summarize the emotions after the European elections," Plenković said on Wednesday evening. He refuted media speculations about his possible candidacy for European Commission president. "This is not a candidacy, this is a serious job of finding a consensus," Plenković said.

He underscored that "the negotiations will be led by Donald Tusk on the one side and on the other by the six of us who were named yesterday."

EU member states' leaders exchanged opinions at an extraordinary summit in Brussels on Tuesday on the election of the new heads of European institutions, without discussing names, and confirmed there is no automatism whereby the European Commission president becomes one of the lead candidates whom the European political groups nominated in recent elections.

Plenković said on Tuesday that consultations would begin as of Monday to reach agreement by the end of June on the candidate the European Council would nominate for Commission president, who must be confirmed by the European Parliament.

"Two paths of negotiations have been agreed on so as to reach a solution regarding the head positions in European institutions. The first will be led by European Council President Donald Tusk, who will consult all of us heads of state or government so that we can reach a solution," Plenković told reporters.

As for the second path, the European People's Party, the Liberals and the Socialists have designated two leaders, who are also members of the European Council, to help Tusk find a solution. The EPP designated Plenković and Latvian PM Krisjanis Kariņs, the Liberals designated Dutch PM Mark Rutte and Belgian PM Charles Michel, and the Socialists designated Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez and Portuguese PM Antonio Costa.

The Commission president should be elected first, followed by the Council president, the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, and the president of the European Central Bank. In doing so, attention should be paid to geographical, demographic, gender and political balances.

More news about Croatia and the European Union can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, May 29, 2019 - EU member states' leaders exchanged opinions at an extraordinary summit in Brussels on Tuesday on the election of the new heads of European institutions, without discussing names, and confirmed there is no automatism whereby the European Commission president becomes one of the lead candidates whom the European political groups nominated in recent elections. Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said consultations would begin as of Monday to reach agreement by the end of June on the candidate the European Council would nominate for Commission president, who must be confirmed by the European Parliament.

"Two paths of negotiations have been agreed on so as to reach a solution regarding the head positions in European institutions. The first will be led by European Council President Donald Tusk, who will consult all of us heads of state or government so that we can reach a solution," Plenković told reporters.

As for the second path, the European People's Party, the Liberals and the Socialists have designated two leaders, who are also members of the European Council, to help Tusk find a solution. The EPP designated Plenković and Latvian PM Krisjanis Kariņs, the Liberals designated Dutch PM Mark Rutte and Belgian PM Charles Michel, and the Socialists designated Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez and Portuguese PM Antonio Costa.

The Commission president should be elected first, followed by the Council president, the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, and the president of the European Central Bank. In doing so, attention should be paid to geographical, demographic, gender and political balances.

All European People's Party leaders are unanimous in their support to Manfred Webber for European Commission president, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Brussels on Tuesday.

“It is the unanimous stand of all EPP leaders, after such results, to support our candidate Manfred Weber for president of the European Commission, and this is the position we are taking today," Plenković told reporters after a summit of party leaders, before the informal dinner. "We analysed the election results at the EPP summit today. We are satisfied. We are again the strongest political party on the continent, the relative election winner," he added.

He said no decision would be made at today's informal summit as it was a chance to crystallize positions. He said that in the distribution of new positions it was necessary to take geographical balance into account and that it would be good if a position went to a country in central and east Europe.

Asked how much truth there was in an article in the latest issue of the Croatian Nacional weekly, which says that German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants Plenković in a leading position in the EU, that Dragan Primorac would replace him as PM, and that this was the main reason for her visit to Zagreb ahead of the European elections, Plenković responded ironically. "That certainly was the main reason. That's all we talked about. The whole article and everything it says is news to me."

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, May 28, 2019 - An international conference called “International Cultural Relations of the European Union – Europe, the World, Croatia" will be held in the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka on May 30 - 31 with about forty Croatian and foreign professors, researchers, cultural activists, diplomats and others participating, a press conference heard on Tuesday.

The conference is being organised by the Rijeka 2020 - European Culture Capital project, the Miko Tripalo Centre for Democracy and Rights and the University of Rijeka in cooperation with the Culturelink - Network of Networks for Research and Cooperation in Cultural Development and the Observatory of Cultural Policies (France).

The aim of this conference is to encourage dialogue about the opportunities and challenges of today’s international cultural cooperation and to analyse the modalities that lead to more intense and more functional global cooperation and exchange between the European Union and the world, the organisers say.

The Rijeka 2020 project coordinator Irena Kregar Šegota said that the project does not relate only to culture and artistic content but such series of conferences put Rijeka on the map as a relevant point in Europe when considering issues related to culture and cultural policies.

Kregar Šegota in particular highlighted a panel discussion on the diplomacy of cities based on culture and the role of big events such as the European Capital of Culture project as well as inter-continental cultural cooperation between Europe and Africa.

"The four main topics of the conference are: Role of cultural policies in fostering international cultural cooperation; Cultural networks, the expression of cultural change in international relations; Cultural Diplomacy: strengthening external relations between the EU and third countries; Croatia in international cultural cooperation," according to the information published on the website of the conference.

More news about culture in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, May 23, 2019 - Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović and European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides on Thursday signed a letter of intent on the continuation of cooperation between the ministry and the European Commission on setting up the rescEU civil protection mechanism and an agreement on direct allocation of EU funds for the capacities Croatia has contributed to this new European system to tackle natural disasters.

Stylianides said that the rescEU mechanism was expanding and announced the establishment of the first joint European firefighting fleet, which will be ready for this year's forest fire season.

Croatia is one of the first members that has joined the fleet with two firefighting planes. That is an example of European solidarity. With rescEU we are showing our desire and commitment to enhance the system of protection. Croatia's forces are brilliant. They are true heroes who deal with fires and other disasters without human losses. Truly, congratulations Croatia. Our aim is solidarity, protection of EU citizens and saving of lives, Stylianides said in Split.

Minister Božinović underscored that activities related to the single EU policy were continuing, as could be seen in Split after the big wildfires in 2017 as well as other parts of Croatia and Europe.

He stressed that procedures had been stepped up to establish a mechanism that would combine forces at the European level through the rescEU mechanism and that Croatia had been very active from the very start.

Božinović said that Croatia had made the necessary changes to its civil protection system to integrate all services and added that the government had considered ways of enhancing Croatia's visibility within the EU even more.

"Croatia has participated in the creation of a new European policy from the start and the public has been able to follow that from the very first day. In the period from 2021 to 2027 the EU plans to set aside 1.5 million euro for the protection and rescue sector. We have been recognised as one of the leading nations due to our long tradition that we have also due to weather and other conditions. On the one hand, we have been creating a European policy that has become a reality and on the other hand, we have organised ourselves so that both Croatia and Europe could have the most benefit," Božinović said.

He recalled that the government had embarked on equipping firefighters and would continue with other forces and show solidarity at the European level.

Croatia will contribute two Canadair firefighting aircraft and will primarily be used to put out fires in Croatia but will also be made available for operations outside the country if required, he said.

Until now, the costs of Canadair services were covered from the state budget whereas with today's agreement, the EU has set aside 1.9 million euro for logistics, maintenance, spare parts and operating costs of firefighting aircraft.

It is important that Croatia has been recognised at the EU level and that it has its heroes who put out fires and save people's lives, the minister added.

More news about firefighting in Croatia can be found in the Lifestyle section.