ZAGREB, March 13, 2019 - Croatia is open to the idea of extending the deadline for Great Britain's leaving the European Union, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday, expressing dissatisfaction over the situation involving Brexit, saying it was an example of a referendum in the public sphere and for campaigning. "We are open to extending the deadline," Plenković said when asked if Croatia would be willing to accept an extension to the March 29 deadline for Britain's departure from the EU.

According to Plenković, delaying Bexit could have two scenarios. The first one is a shorter deadline which would give a final chance for an orderly Brexit before the European election or by July 1 at the latest, while the second, longer deadline would raise a number of issues such as the make-up of the European Parliament. In case of a need for the deadline extension, Plenković said he would prefer if the deadline was shorter.

"What is happening in the United Kingdom now is a very good example and it is very important for the Croatian public to understand the consequences of the misuse of a referendum in the public sphere of for campaigning," Plenković said.

Plenković said that ahead of the 2016 referendum, voters heard a lot of information which scared them and were fairy tales and lies, adding that because of that a majority of voters supported Britain's departure from the EU.

Plenković also recalled that the incumbent Prime Minister Theresa May as well as the then Prime Minister David Cameron were for Britain's staying in the EU, but Cameron made "a wrong political assessment by giving room to a man like Nigel Farage ... who had an agenda of destruction which unfortunately was successful."

Plenković said that the will of the majority must be respected, but that it is bad for the British people. "Today they are realising that for the past two and a half years they were a country that dealt with only one topic and one topic alone. Great Britain is one of the the top five global economies, a permanent member of the Security Council, a nuclear force, a global free trade champion. They are self-centred."

The Croatian PM said the European Union did its best to have an orderly Brexit.

Three years after Britain voted to leave the European Union, lawmakers have failed to agree on how to do so. Parliament rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's revised Brexit deal on Tuesday in a vote of 391 to 242, the second time she has suffered such an overwhelming defeat.

Parliament will vote on Wednesday on whether to leave the European Union on schedule, on March 29, without a deal -- a scenario that could create economic havoc for Britain and, to a lesser degree, Europe.

Plenković believes that lawmakers were very likely to reject Brexit without a deal and then the only thing left to do was to opt for a delay.

More news on Croatia and Brexit can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 17, 2019 - Theresa May is cleaning up the Brexit mess left by her predecessor David Cameron, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Saturday, sympathising with the British prime minister's efforts to take her country out of the European Union in an orderly manner.

Britons voted in favour of Brexit at a 2016 referendum called by former Prime Minister David Cameron, who wanted the United Kingdom to remain in the EU. He resigned after the referendum and left her successor May, who was also against Brexit, to agree a "divorce" deal with the EU.

"It was a completely unnecessary referendum and we are all living with the consequences of the bad political assessments of the previous British prime minister," Plenković said at a security conference in Munich.

"Frankly speaking, Theresa May is actually cleaning up someone else's mess," Plenković said, adding that an orderly and predictable Brexit was important for Croatia.

"We regret that decision. We think it is not good, it is indeed bad both for Britain and for the EU, but we are working with other members to ensure that it is conducted in an orderly fashion," he added.

Apart from speaking about Brexit during a discussion on the future of Europe, Plenković also discussed the matter with the European Commission's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

The Croatian prime minister met with Markus Soeder, the premier of Bavaria, where 100,000 Croats live, including 50,000 in Munich. Bavarians account for one third of all tourists who visit Croatia.

Plenković discussed the 2021-2027 European budget with European Commissioner Gunther Oettinger and told him that the cohesion and agriculture policy funds and the security and migration funds were most important to Zagreb.

The Croatian prime minister also met with Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, and later in the day he was due to meet with Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, and the head of the European People's Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber.

More news on Croatia and Brexit can be found in the Politics section.

On a pile on the ground near the house at the corner of Kamenita St. and Opatička St. in Zagreb. This was when the so-called Admiral Nelson's chain was last seen; it used to be attached to the facade of a building at Kamenita St. for more than a hundred years. Until last summer, when the building underwent a reconstruction, reports Večernji List on February 5, 2019.

The chain was put there by Albert Nugent at the end of the 19th century, while his family owned the building. He did it after the death of his father, Count Laval Nugent, a passionate art collector who, as an Austrian army commander, came to Croatia and stayed here to live. Laval Nugent was also the founder of the first museum in Croatia, the Nugent Museum, at the Trsat fort near Rijeka.

It was Count Nugent who brought to Zagreb the chain which was allegedly part of HMS Victory. In 1805, the ship was commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson during the famous Battle of Trafalgar in which Britain defeated Napoleon's fleet. Nelson was killed on that ship, which today stands at the Portsmouth harbour as a naval museum.

The historically-important chain was removed during the reconstruction so that it would not be damaged. The head of the City Institute for Protection of Monuments, Stipe Tutiš, said that the chain would be returned about the works are done. The City Office for Spatial Planning manages the renovations works, but its head, Dinko Bilić, said that the chain has not yet been refurbished.

However, both offices remained silent when asked where the chain is presently stored. Reporters have checked the facilities where the chain could be located, but it has not been seen in the Zagreb City Museum or the Croatian History Museum. It is not at the Croatian Restoration Institute and not at the Archaeological Museum, which keeps some of the other objects bought from the heirs of Count Nugent which were brought there in more than 80 cases.

People living in surrounding buildings are afraid that Nelson’s chain will never return to its old position. “There are rumours that the chain has been stolen,” says Marko Majnarić, the manager of the Lav bar, located in a building on the corner of Kamenita St. and Opatička St.

Many people ask about the chain, including tourists, who always tour the Upper Town during their visits. “The chain is featured in tourist brochures, we hope someone will return it someday,” said a local.

Translated from Večernji List (reported by Petra Balija).

More Zagreb news can be found in the special section.

The links between the United Kingdom and the European Union, which have existed since 1973 and the times of the European Economic Community, are about to have their nature altered. While tourism is perhaps not the biggest concern on both sides, the industry is worth billions of dollars, and it is certain that even the softest Brexit would be complicated, making travel more expensive for the British, reports Večernji List on January 23, 2019.

Although there will be no visa system introduced, travel may be affected on and after March 29 when Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union, including during the Easter holidays which will follow soon after that. Various scenarios talk about five to as many as 20 million Britons who might decide against visiting EU countries. The most significant concern can be felt in Spain, which was visited by 19 million Britons last year.

However, even the Croatian tourist industry seems worried, due to the general uncertainty, and also because British guests are among the best-spending. The British guest in Croatia spends 139 euro a day, which is almost twice as much as the Czech, Hungarian or Croatian tourist. Tourist trips are currently being sold provisionally since travel agencies and airline companies do not have answers to issues related to air transport, insurance, mobile roaming, passport controls. The European Union has announced that the British will not need visas, at least not initially, but they want to know what will happen at the borders with their passports which still contain words "European Union".

Veljko Ostojić, director of the Croatian Tourism Association, agrees that there are still too many unknowns. “This situation is a potentially great danger to our tourism industry. No one is currently aware of all possible consequences of Brexit, including us in Croatia. At present, I see two problems: strong uncertainty in the strongest booking period, and the possibility of weakening of the British pound, which would bring about a fall in purchasing power. If this happens, British tourists will choose shorter trips and cheaper destinations. Fortunately, there is no news that Croatian tourism has suffered any consequences so far,” said Ostojić.

Compared to the booking state of play at this time last year, the situation is more or less unchanged. There has been no significant increase or decrease, which director of the Croatian National Tourist Board Kristjan Staničić says is satisfactory. “The overall effects are still uncertain. But the analysis by the British tour operator ABTA has shown that the EU countries are the key destinations for the British, and there is even some research that shows the British plan to travel more than last year,” Staničić said.

The only question is where. At the London tourist fair in November, a number of tour operators confirmed that sales of travel packages to the EU were growing five per cent, but to the countries outside of the EU, the growth was five times faster.

Translated from Večernji List (reported by Radmila Kovačević).

More news on Croatia and Brexit can be found at the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 26, 2018 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Brussels on Sunday that the European Union had reached the best possible withdrawal agreement with the United Kingdom and that it was illusory to expect a better Brexit deal on the table.

The leaders of the 27 EU member states, meeting at a special summit in Brussels on Sunday, endorsed the withdrawal agreement with the UK and the political declaration on future EU-UK relations.

The toughest part follows after the summit as the British prime minister needs to secure a majority in the British Parliament to support the deal, which at this point is highly uncertain.

Asked if the EU had a fallback plan in case the agreement didn't go through the British Parliament in mid-December, Plenković said he wouldn't speculate. "Let's wait for that moment to come. What's clear from the speeches of most colleagues here is that it is quite illusory to expect that a better text will come on the table. In my opinion, this is a good compromise which is very generous to Great Britain, which has decided on its own to leave."

He said that British Prime Minister Theresa May was in an unenviable position because during the campaign preceding the Brexit referendum she had advocated staying in the EU.

Plenković reiterated that the country's departure would hit the UK the most, but that the EU would also be affected. "The Union without Great Britain, a permanent UN Security Council member, a nuclear power, a champion of free trade, a key country globally, is not the same anymore," the Croatian prime minister said.

He said he was pleased that the agreement had been reached, but that he was not happy that this had happened in the first place. He expressed hope that the Brexit situation would discourage other countries from taking the same path.

"All this that is happening in Great Britain, all these processes are not good at all. They can't focus on any other topic and are only preoccupied with this, which is bad. I think that the lesson from this is that topics like this should be better explained to the public," Plenković said.

He mentioned British Eurosceptic member of the European Parliament Nigel Farage as a person who had had the greatest influence on the British public in this matter and recalled that Farage had also taken part in a 2011 referendum campaign in Croatia on the country's EU membership bid.

"Therefore, lessons have been learnt. Now we know what happens when something like this is initiated legally. Politically, anyone who would follow this scenario wouldn't benefit from it. That is more than obvious," Plenković concluded.

For more on Croatia’s Brexit policies, click here.

ZAGREB, November 25, 2018 - European Union leaders, meeting at a special EU Brexit summit in Brussels on Sunday, endorsed an agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union and a political declaration on future EU-UK relations, European Council President Donald Tusk announced after the meeting.

The European Council calls on the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council to take the necessary steps to ensure that the agreement can enter into force on 30 March 2019, so as to provide for an orderly withdrawal, Tusk added.

Speaking to reporters before the summit, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that the UK's withdrawal was not good for the Union, but that it would hurt the UK the most.

"My position on this has been clear for several years now. It is a pity that this has occurred at all, but I think that this decision will have the most negative consequences for the United Kingdom itself, although it is not good for the European Union either," the Croatian prime minister said.

He said that since this process was initiated, it should be conducted in an orderly fashion. "That is why this withdrawal agreement, the political declaration on future relations and this arrangement regarding Gibraltar and Northern Ireland is the best possible way under the existing circumstances to regulate these issues."

For more on Croatia’s relations with the United Kingdom, click here.

ZAGREB, November 24, 2018 - The Foreign Ministry on Friday defended Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, against whom the Conflict of Interest Commission decided to launch proceedings over the appointment of his close friend as Croatia's ambassador to UK.

The Commission launched the proceedings because, when Igor Pokaz was appointed to the post, Plenković did not inform the public that he had been Pokaz's best man at his wedding.

Plenković said the Commission's decision was "without arguments and unnecessary" and the Foreign Ministry came to his defence, saying Pokaz was an expert with a vast career. "Reducing his appointment to a personal acquaintance would mean to negate and devalue his professional achievements," the ministry said.

Plenković did not nominate Pokaz nor could he exempt himself from the appointment in which the president, the government and parliament's foreign affairs committee take part, it added.

In the case in question, the prime minister, based on a government decision and the opinion of the parliamentary committee, gave his co-signature for the president's decision, and the procedure was done entirely in line with the constitution and other regulations, the ministry said, adding that decisions on the appointments of ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions as well as on their dismissals are made by the president.

Under the constitution, the prime minister cannot exempt himself from decisions on the appointments of ambassadors, and the appointments and dismissals of heads of diplomatic missions cannot be done without a co-decision by the prime minister and the president, the ministry said.

Plenković used the same argument when commenting on the decision of the Conflict of Interest Commission. "Legally it's not possible to exempt oneself."

For more on Croatia’s relations with the United Kingdom, click here.

“Croatia never fails to wow intrepid explorers thanks to the plethora of attractions and landmarks it offers.” This is how the latest in a series of articles on Croatia’s tourism offer starts. It has been published by Mirror on its website, listing the best things to see in Croatia.

“We are talking historic old towns, breathtaking islands with a vibrant nightlife, epic national parks filled with lakes and waterfalls, and plenty of jaw-dropping natural highlights. Cities such as Dubrovnik and Split have enjoyed a surge of popularity after serving as Game of Thrones filming locations, shining a spotlight on just what this spectacular country has to offer,” writes Mirror.

Mirror decided to select seven of the best thing that tourists should not miss when they come to Croatia.

Dubrovnik's Old Town
Of course, it is unavoidable that Dubrovnik would be featured on this list, with a special emphasis on its UNESCO World Heritage Site status and the fact that the Games of Thrones TV series was filmed there. The only downside – it can get pretty overcrowded when cruise ships dock in the area.

Plitvice Lakes
The Plitvice Lakes National Park is also a regular feature of lists such as this. “Plitvice Lakes national park boasts terraced lakes linked together by waterfalls, making for quite the picture-perfect setting from the turquoise waters to the lush green landscapes. There are plenty of walkways and hiking trails for those who want to go exploring in search of highlights such as the Veliki Slap, a 78m high waterfall,” writes Mirror.

The only bad news for travellers? You cannot swim in the lakes.

Krka National Park
Another national park which is regularly presented in lists such as the Mirror’s is the Krka National Park, with its waterfalls and dense greenery. “You can actually swim in the waters right by the falls and there's very much a relaxed atmosphere if you want to stop off and soak up the sun. For those who want a bit more adventure, there are wooden walkways throughout the park with trails leading you through some of the prettiest spots. Oh, and history fans will want to visit the Krka Monastery, built above some ancient Roman catacombs,” writes Mirror.

Hvar
Hvar has been well-known for years as a party town, and in recent years it has become especially popular by the Made in Chelsea reality TV show broadcast on British television. “By day, the luxurious hotels and the picturesque harbour make for a pretty backdrop as you soak up the sunshine. By night, the marina comes alive with plenty of restaurants and bars where you'll find revellers until the early hours of the morning,” writes Mirror.

Other destinations featured in the article are Split, Zagreb and the Blue Cave on the island of Biševo. The whole list of the best things to see in Croatia can be found here.

For more on Croatian tourism, click here.

The Croatian National Tourist Board (HTZ) and Great British Chefs (GBC), the leading culinary organization gathering over 200 of the UK's top chefs, organized an interactive event in London to promote the potential of Croatian cuisine and wine and dine scene as an important part of the Croatian tourist offer. The event featured some of the British Michelin-starred chefs, reports Večernji List on November 21, 2018.

“This is a continuation of excellent cooperation with Great British Chefs, which aims to promote the Croatian gastronomy on the large and important British market. It is also an opportunity for British colleagues to see for themselves the knowledge and skills of Croatian chefs, but also the quality of our local ingredients and top quality wines. The fact that Croatia has a great potential and a good image in this market was confirmed by the response of many leading media outlets who covered the event, including Mail on Sunday, Sunday Times, Independent, Financial Times, Telegraph, The Guardian, BBC and ITV,” said HTZ director Kristjan Staničić, adding that this year there has been more than 852,000 arrivals and 4.4 million overnight stays from the British market so far, which is 8% more than the last year.

The event, featuring the cuisine of central Dalmatia, was held at the well-known London restaurant "Radici". As part of the programme, one of the best Croatian chefs, Rudolf Štefan, the owner of the Michelin-starred "Pelegrini" restaurant in Šibenik, was introduced to the British media.

“This event is a great opportunity to demonstrate what we have learned in collaboration with GBC and the fantastic chefs. I am glad that the HTZ has decided to support this project which further proves that Croatia is not just a country known for its cultural and natural beauties, but also a country of excellent food and great hosts,” explained Štefan.

The programme also featured stars of the British culinary scene, Francesco Mazzei and Tom Aikens, who recently stayed in Croatia where they were introduced to the local gastronomy traditions. The British duo prepared dishes inspired by the culinary journey during which they discovered authentic Dalmatian culinary traditions of Split, Šolta and Šibenik.

“I am delighted to be able to take part in this event to present our knowledge and experience of the Croatian gastronomy, for now in London, and soon in the whole world,” said Mazzei, while Aikens praised the work of Croatian chef Štefan. “A lot of countries have a passion for gastronomy, but the way Rudi represents Croatian cuisine is unique,” concluded Aikens.

The comments by the British guests showed that the event was a success. Chris Leadbeater of Daily Telegraph emphasized that Croatia was already recognized worldwide by its excellent restaurants and chefs, but that Rudi's approach to food was an invitation for further exploration of Croatian gastronomy. Natalie Bloxham of ITV said that during the event she had gained insight into another part of the Croatian story and that she would soon visit our country.

Positive impressions have also been confirmed by Ollie Lloyd of Great British Chefs. “We have succeeded in achieving what we wanted to do with this event, which is to have two top British chefs use Croatian ingredients and thus show what they have learned about Croatian gastronomy. All this would not have been possible without good cooperation with one of the best Croatian chefs,” said Lloyd, adding that Francesco Mazzei is a significant player in the London restaurant industry and also a TV star with frequent appearances on BBC and ITV television shows. Tom Aikens is the youngest chef with two Michelin stars and the owner of a restaurant empire that spans several continents.

For more on Croatian cuisine, click here.

ZAGREB, October 18, 2018 - The offer made by the European Union to Great Britain in Brexit negotiations is good and generous and now it remains to be seen what is acceptable to the Britons considering the political situation in their country, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Brussels on Thursday before the start of the second day of the EU summit.