October 9, 2021 - The Association of Night Clubs and Bars addressed the public with a statement in which, as they say, they ''want to warn of the work of the Croatian Headquarters, which without real and scientific arguments, persistently maintain the decision to limit Croatian nightclubs and bars until midnight''.

“However, some cafes and restaurants are turning into nightclubs despite epidemiological measures and the law on noise protection, as they work illegally, so we can't help but wonder who is crazy in this situation! We are witnessing that the media often report on illegal parties in the capital, but many nightclubs and indoor bars are closed until further notice'', they addressed.

Precisely because of the bans on nightclubs and bars, the statement said, thousands of young people are finding night entertainment in neighboring Bosnia and Serbia because there are no restrictions in their countries, reports HrTurizam.hr. Catering facilities that are 30 to 40 minutes drive away in neighboring countries offer their services after midnight, their prices are cheaper and VAT in catering is lower and there is no consumption tax. Absolutely everything is available and allowed to them, both in the clubs themselves without any restrictions on working hours, COVID certificates and tests, and on their return to Croatia.

The Association of Voices of Entrepreneurs and the Association of Nightclubs and Bars believe that the Croatian Headquarters should take these facts into account, and act like EU countries and our neighboring countries, removing the restriction on working hours of Croatian nightclubs and bars and allow work in compliance with epidemiological measures. ''This approach and bans only encourage illegal work, and young people are still not vaccinated to the extent they anticipated. In addition, constant pressure and almost no measures to help nightclubs and bars harm the business, many cannot achieve fixed costs if the company is engaged in some other business in addition to the nightclub business, although it is very clear that they are banned from working!'', they added.

''We believe that this kind of abuse of the Headquarters over Croatian nightclubs and bars must end. We hereby tell them that they prefer to worry about how to increase the number of vaccinated among vulnerable groups and allow night catering establishments to work after more than 18 months and compensation for all the time they spent in lockdown!”, reads the statement.

"Even after more than 18 months without work, the Croatian Headquarters does not want to allow nightclubs in Croatia, so under the disguise of caring for the health of people who do not want to take responsibility for their own health and get vaccinated for two years destroys youth in Croatia, and we got the impression that the Government of the Republic of Croatia wants to destroy the event and the entertainment industry in the Republic of Croatia. These measures themselves encourage mass illegal parties, where there is no implementation of epidemiological measures, and fiscalization is a foreign word. Also, young people from Croatia are still looking for their desire to have fun in neighboring countries, especially Bosnia, where in addition to lower VAT, and therefore lower drink prices, they can now refuel much cheaper fuel, so it turns out that this trip is 30 minutes to clubs in our neighboring countries free. All this is available to them without any restrictions on working hours, covid certificates, or tests. It is obvious that the headquarters is showing hypocrisy where it does not allow us to work, and encourages going to neighboring countries where no one controls you. We want to emphasize once again that we are not guilty of poor vaccination of Croatia, but that the Headquarters seeks the culprits in its contradictory decisions, such as this scientifically and logically unfounded claim that coronavirus attacks after midnight", said Domagoj Petričević from the Association of Nightclubs and Bars.

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September 7, 2020 - Big news today, as the Croatian Headquarters does not extend the midnight rule for bars and clubs. 

As Index.hr reports, at midnight, the National Civil Protection Headquarters' decision, which limited the working hours of bars and clubs, expired.

According to that decision, bars and clubs were allowed to work only until midnight. Since the Headquarters did not extend the decision, from today, clubs and bars can work as before the decision made on August 14 and extended on August 27.

The midnight ban for bars and clubs was introduced after clubs, primarily those on the Adriatic, proved to be places where the coronavirus spread.

"I have to point out a few related facts about these 180 newly infected. It’s an even younger age group than yesterday, averaging 31 years. Most of them can be connected with gatherings on the Adriatic coast," said the head of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Krunoslav Capak, in mid-August. He added then that the competent inspections would continue to control the work of caterers.

In the meantime, the Headquarters did not explain the situation with clubs in terms of coronavirus spread. It is only known that the decision to limit the work of clubs until midnight was presented as a measure to reduce the spread of coronavirus among young people, because these situations have often been cited by the Headquarters as epidemiologically particularly risky.

But it is also a decision that had very negative consequences. Last week, a post by Jure Karamarko from Zadar spread on Facebook, as he published a letter to the National Civil Protection Headquarters in which he told them that he had just lost his job in a Zadar nightclub and ironically thanked them for it.

As he wrote, the employer informed him and his entire team that they had been deregistered. He wrote that he does not blame the employer at all and that it is clear to him that someone cannot pay salaries and contributions to someone who earns zero, but he sees the blame in the Headquarters to which he sent very direct messages about their decisions.

He said that his team, which has now lost its job, has served tens of thousands of people without a single infected person, and that they have complied with measures that were not prescribed, and introduced thermometers in the club. He also accused the owners of clubs who were silent.

He called the Headquarters "corrupt scum" who succumbed to pressure and put all the blame on clubs. He said that because of the Headquarters, his people and their families would not have anything to eat tomorrow.

It was also warned that the decision to limit working hours was violated in various ways, such as restaurants that are actually clubs, or party boats on the Adriatic, but, despite the fact that they announced it themselves, the Headquarters never made any decisions to regulate it, so the only problem for the Headquarters were clubs and bars.

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