ZAGREB, 23 April 2022 - Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Ćorić formally opened a solar power plant in Mursko Središće on Friday, saying that the Sobočan company has put this northern town on the European map of positive production trends. 

The project cost HRK 4 million (€533,000), of which 70 per cent was provided by the European Union. Thanks to the solar power plant, as much as 70 per cent of the needs of the Sobočan company for its production processes will be met using renewable energy.

Over the last 20 years, Sobočan has evolved from a small family firm into one of the leading European manufacturers of furniture and equipment for world renowned brands, its founder, Franjo Sobočan, said.

He said that the company had begun its green transition in 2016 by building a wood-waste burning plant, and that now it is one of the leaders in applying solutions based on renewable energy sources.

Ćorić said that with its competitiveness and the fact that it exports about 70 per cent of its production, Sobočan can be an example to the entire industrial sector in Croatia. He said that the company has shown how to cope with competition on the global market and become a success story.

For more, make sure to check out our business section.

18th of April 2022 - The Palliative Team was launched which included six Croatian veterans who volunteered together with the staff of the Vukovar Health Center.

As Novosti.hr reports, the president of the association “Defender Helps the Defender” (Branitelj pomaže branitelju) Željko Miškulin, wanted to expand the projects so three months later, they founded an association whose goal is to support the Croatian veteran population.

“I saw the needs of the veterans and their sense of forgetfulness since they fell ill. Veteran health and mortality problems were high, several of us suffer from multiple sclerosis, and most members have the status of Croatian war invalids. It was my path and guidance to embark on an adventure that proved useful and successful”, says Miškulin. The association has 50 members of volunteers and, although at the beginning it gathered people from Vukovar - Srijem and Osijek - Baranja counties, today they come from other Croatian counties as well.

In the beginning, the founding members and President Miškulin as volunteers of the Vukovar Health Center, provided palliative care to veterans in their homes, socialized and talked with them, and enabled family members to perform other tasks. After some time, they secured a visit from a dentist to a veteran who was then a bedridden patient for two years, with clergy and priests later joining the cause. Now they provide psychological support, organize examinations, controls, ambulance transport, free accommodation, and food during treatment for family members in Zagreb.

“We have excellent cooperation with the hospital in Vukovar but also with health institutions in Osijek, Zagreb, Zadar, and the health Center in Vinkovci. We also focused on helping the children of Croatian veterans with developmental and severe disabilities, we provide them with equipment and aids with Caritas helping us”, explained Miškulin, adding that the veterans are delighted that someone thinks about their needs.

Behind them are four implemented projects, three more are underway, and new education and an increase of the member numbers are planned as well.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 16 April 2022 - The Archbishop of Zagreb, Cardinal Josip Bozanić, on Saturday wished a happy Easter to all believers and people of good will, saying that all people in the depth of their hearts want peace.

"We feel this desire especially in these times, strongly marked by the war suffering and victims in Ukraine. We are witness to the spread of suffering in order to create, bring and support unrest and fear," he said.

"In this frightening war noise, everyone is saying that they advocate peace and want to establish peace. But how?" the cardinal said, calling for prayer.

"While we sympathise with the victims of the war, in which the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian citizens are forced to defend their lives and the lives of their dear ones, freedom and the democratic right to self-determination, we are praying for all who can and want to really help in establishing a just peace," Bozanić said in his message, among other things.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 16 April 2022 - World Hemophilia Day, observed on 17 April, is taking place under the theme "Access for All: Partnership. Policy. Progress" this year and in Croatia it will be marked by the Croatian Hemophiliacs Society.

World Hemophilia Day has been observed since 1989 to raise awareness of this condition and other bleeding disorders.

Thereby the World Federation of Hemophilia wants to encourage every country to include inherited bleeding disorders in national strategies and to raise awareness of this condition so as to bring about sustainable and equitable access to care and treatment, Croatian Hemophiliacs Society president Marko Marinić has said.

The Croatian Hemophiliacs Society is a voluntary NGO founded in Zagreb 30 years ago. It has more than 400 members - patients and their families as well as physicians, medical staff and experts in various fields who are trying to improve the quality of life of hemophiliacs.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 16 April 2022 - In the last 24 hours, 644 coronavirus cases and five related deaths have been registered in Croatia, the national COVID-19 crisis management team said on Saturday.

There are 5,231 active cases, including 478 hospitalised patients, 25 of whom are on ventilators, while 3,162 persons are self-isolating.

To date, Croatia has registered 1,113,135 coronavirus cases, the death toll is 15,725, and 59.46% of the total population, i.e. 70.73% of adults, have been vaccinated against COVID.

ZAGREB, 16 April 2022 - Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities Anka Slonjšak has warned that in 2021 there was a rising number of incidents in which children with disabilities were exposed to discriminatory speech and that some of those cases that outraged the public, criminal proceedings were launched.

"We have warned about the cases of hate and prejudicial speech," Slonjšak said in her annual report.

In one of those cases, a child with autistic spectrum disorder was told to leave a patisserie in the town of Samobor with the explanation that "such children belong to the woods". In another case, a mother and her daughter with Down Syndrome had to leave a cafe in Zadar as they "are damaging the reputation of the cafe."

Some incidents of this kind have been the reason to press charges against bullies whose behaviour outraged the public.

The Office of Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities monitors and promotes the rights of over 612,000 persons with disabilities, including 30,000 students with developmental disorders.

In 2021, a number of complaints lodged with the Office increased by a fifth compared to 2020.

Most complaints referred to the conduct of social welfare (502), while 329 referred to difficulties in employment and on the labour market, and 280 concerned access and mobility.

COVID takes lives of 2,500 disabled persons

During the COVID pandemic almost 110,000 of them caught coronavirus, according to the statistics kept until 9 March 2022, and approximately 2,500 died from the infection, while in Croatia so far about this infection has taken over 16,000 lives. 

The pandemic has led to the degradation of the rights of disabled citizens, the Ombudsman warns.

ZAGREB, 16 April 2022 - President Zoran Milanović stated on Saturday in his Easter message that "in these difficult times when there is a serious threat to peace, Easter must remind us that good, solidarity and love for our neighbour is the most important not just religious, but also universal secular principle."

Wishing a blessed and holy Easter, the president says that this greatest Christian holiday "has always given people faith in the victory of light and good, as well as a new beginning."

"This year we are celebrating Easter with wounds that have yet to be healed as a result of the earthquakes and the pandemic in our Homeland, but also exposed to challenges and threats to peace, threats we believed were in the past."

"Confronted once again with war losses and the suffering of people in Europe, our common home, all of us in Croatia are quite aware of the meaning and the value of peace among people and nations," says the Croatian head of state.

He also underscores that  "for the faithful, Easter is a time to contemplate one’s personal choices and reflect on one’s actions."

"Let us accept the principles of good and love as a path towards strengthening mutual solidarity and understanding in the hope that all people will celebrate Easter, the greatest Christian feast, in peace and joy, surrounded by family and friends," says Milanović who at the end of his message wished a happy and blessed Easter to all who are celebrating this holiday in Croatia and abroad, "and to all our fellow Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina."

For more, check out our politics section.

ZAGREB, 16 April 2022 - Sabor Speaker Gordan Jandroković says in his Easter message that this Christian holiday encourages the promotion of peace, forgiveness and charity, and he calls for thinking of all who are suffering and who have lost the hope and joy of their life in these fast-changing times marked by the Ukraine war.

Wishing a happy Easter to the Croatians in the country and abroad, the parliament speaker said on Saturday that Easter is a holiday of families and reflects the importance of the family blessing and care for children and the youth who have passed through the very demanding last two years marked by the pandemic and earthquakes.

"This greatest Christian holiday urges us to strengthen togetherness, mutual respect and respect for diversities as well as to strengthen solidarity to ensure that every human being can have a dignified life," says the Parliament Speaker, among other things.

ZAGREB, 16 April 2022 - The Croatian Association for Patients' Rights said on Friday that due to the fact that more and more complaints are being filed by patients, a new law on patients' rights should be prepared, "because the current one from 2004 is not applicable."

On the occasion of the European Day of Patients' Rights, observed on 18 April, the association issued a statement warning about "an increase in patient complaints and inadequate responses from official institutions"  which have led to "an increased number of lawsuits even outside Croatia."

The association also requests the preparation of a new law on the protection of patients' rights.

The new legislation should propose "mandatory education of health professionals in hospitals on how to respond to complaints and the institution's obligation to appoint a mediator who will resolve disputes between health professionals and patients." It also asks the introduction of sanctions for the violation of patients' rights.

The association demands that it should be "granted public authority so that in addition to internal investigations, an official investigation of patients' complaints can be conducted" by the association "as the only independent institution in the Republic of Croatia, which is also protected by copyright."

The association recalls that earlier this month an initiative called " Patient Ombudsman" was launched to educate healthcare workers about patients' rights and that so far six Croatian hospitals have been granted the status of European Patient Partnership:  KBC Split, KBC Rijeka, KB Sveti Duh, OB Dubrovnik, OB Pula and the hospital for lung diseases in Zagreb's Rockefellerova Street.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 12 April 2022 - The number of illegal migrants trying to enter Croatia from Una-Sava Canton in the west of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been steadily decreasing as migrants have been looking for other routes to reach EU countries, according to estimates by government bodies and local police in west Bosnia.

According to police data, there are currently slightly more than 2,800 illegal migrants in that part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and they are mostly from African and Asian countries.

Around 850 of them are accommodated in three reception centres and slightly more than 1,800 are staying in makeshift accommodation in Bihać, Cazin and Velika Kladuša or in illegal camps along the border with Croatia.

UNA-Sana Canton ministry of the interior spokesman Adnan Beganović has confirmed to the Banja Luka-based Nezavisne Novine paper that local police still control roads leading to that part of the country to prevent the arrival of new migrants.

He said that that way in 2021 police prevented the arrival of around 17,000 migrants, which is why the number of those trying to reach Croatia along that route has been declining.

"Currently the number of migrants leaving Una-Sana Canton is higher than the number of migrants arriving here. Those who do not manage to cross the border into Croatia are returning to Sarajevo or Serbia and looking for another route to reach Western European countries," Beganović said.