ZAGREB, February 11, 2020 - Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović ended her visit to Germany on Monday by visiting Mainz, where she presented the Croatian Charter to local Croatian associations and met with Croatian and German business people, thanking expatriates for their support during her term in office.

"By awarding this charter, I wish to symbolically complete my presidential term, during which I paid special attention to Croatian expatriates, Croats from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina who exchanged their home for life outside the homeland," she said.

The charter was awarded for patriotism, volunteer work on the cultivation of Croatian culture, language and customs, and for the promotion of Croatia and its cooperation with Germany.

Grabar-Kitarović said that since the beginning of her term she had insisted on the revival of relations with expatriates.

"Although there are still many obstacles on that road, thanks to the efforts of your communities and associations, in recent years we have witnessed returns as well as economic and social ties whereby we have bridged the gap between Croatians abroad and at home," she added.

More diaspora news can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, April 21, 2019 - The person of African descent who disrupted Mass in St Peter's Church in the Croatian Catholic parish in Munich on Saturday evening by shouting "Allahu Akbar" and throwing stones, is mentally ill and not connected with terrorism, the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs said on Sunday.

The man was shouting and throwing stones at the congregation and around the church, and the people fled in panic. Twenty-five Croatian nationals were slightly injured in the confusion, the ministry told Hina, adding that police said that the man did not use firecrackers as some media reported.

Croatian media at home and abroad said that it was a middle-aged man who was shouting "Allahu Akbar", which led many of the believers to think that it was a terrorist attack.

Fenix magazine, the Croatian-language news website based in Frankfurt, said that several people had managed to overpower the man and stop him on his way to the altar before the police came in force.

The Croatian ministry quoted the Munich police as saying that the incident had nothing to do with terrorism and that it was caused by a mentally ill person, who has been hospitalised after being arrested.

Police stepped up security around the churches where Mass was celebrated in Croatian, notably around St Michael's Church.

More Easter news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

A Croatian YouTuber in Germany reveals all about double standards when it comes to your weekly shop...

All too often the Croatian media is plagued by depressing stories of Croats fleeing the country in search of better lives elsewhere. Since Croatia's accession to the European Union, this trend has only grown worse and the level at which emigration from Croatia has been is hardly sustainable for the country these people are leaving behind. 

Many people leave realising that hard work and a difficult adjustment period awaits them, however many assume Western European nations like the UK, Ireland and Germany boast rivers of milk and honey and that everyone earns a huge amount for doing very little, and well, the basic fact that higher wages are typically designed to manage the high cost of living seems to bypass many in their lust for a better economic situation. Some stay, and some return with a stark realisation that life abroad isn't quite as easy as they expected.

With all that said, just how much difference is there in the general price of things between Croatia and Germany? One Croatian YouTuber who moved to Germany back in 2014, just one year after Croatia's accession to the EU, made a video for all those would-be Croatian emigrants.

As Novac writes on the 18th of April, 2019, Ivan Lovric, the oner of the YouTube channel Lovra who moved to Germany with his family in 2014, compared some basic food prices in Germany to those in Croatia in his new video.

''I thought it would be a really good idea to buy some stuff in a shop in Germany, and get my wife to buy the same things over in Croatia. To make a comparison and check whether or not it's really, as it's often said, that it's cheaper in Germany,'' explains Lovra in his video's introduction, which is in Croatian.

They arranged for Ivan's wife to visit the exact same store, a German merchant which has their own stores in Croatia, and buy the same basic foods like bread, milk, eggs, and flour. Although Ivan didn't want to name the store in his video for various reasons, he says that it will not be difficult for people to realise which store it is when they see the branded products.

The first product that the pair checked was bread, more precisely ciabatta. Ivan bought it in Germany and paid the equivalent of 5.13 kuna, and his wife spent 5.99 kuna for the exact same thing here in Croatia. The difference is a mere 86 lipa, less than 1 kuna, so Lovra concluded that that's not so terrible. Once again, the next difference is very small, but again, it leans in favour of Germany when compared to the Croatian price of milk. One litre of milk in Croatia stands at 4.99 kuna, and in Germany, at a lower price of what would be 4.61 kuna. A packet of toast and and a kilograms of fries (chips) in Germany, is cheaper by about 1.50 kuna when compared to Croatia, while sour cream is cheaper in Croatia, sold at 2.99 kuna, whereas in Germany it costs 3.64 kuna.

Still, the biggest surprise, and not in a positive way, are eggs. A box of ten eggs for which Lovro gave 8.85 kuna, his wife paid a significantly higher 13.49 kuna here in Croatia, almost five kuna more. The difference is almost 3 kuna more when comparing the prices of Nutella, a favourite of many. Over in Germany, a 400g pack costs 20.75 kuna, and in Croatia it costs 23.49 kuna.

In the end, Lovra paid a total of 131.54 kuna for his basket, and the exact same basket from the exact same German store, but in Croatia, was almost 20 kuna more, or 150.03 kuna.

''Yes, I unfortunately have to say that in Germany it's cheaper than it is in Croatia. There's not a big difference, but I believe that when everything is calculated at an annual level, the difference is a lot bigger,'' concluded Lovra.

He also added the fact that the average wage in Croatia is considerably lower than in Germany, and thus Croats have a lower standard of living than the Germans.

If you're able to understand Croatian, watch Ivan's video here:

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ZAGREB, February 17, 2019 - Thanks to European funds, Croatia can carry out projects for which it has not enough money, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Sunday at a meeting with Croat diaspora in Munich, speaking about the advantages of European Union membership.

Croatia joined the EU in 2013 and next year it will chair the EU for the first time.

The next goals are joining the Schengen and euro areas, and the 2021-27 budget offers big opportunities for building roads, airports and railways, and for investing in rural development and agriculture, said Plenković.

"We would have a hard time finding the money for all that in the national budget without borrowing, and here we get it as grants," he said at the meeting at the Croatian Consulate. "That's why this added value of our EU membership, which you live every day, knowing very well how useful it is, is one of the fundamental goals in the years ahead."

About 100,000 Croats live in Bavaria, including 50,000 in its capital of Munich. Half of all the German tourists vacationing in Croatia come from Bavaria, as do large investments in the Croatian economy.

Croatia has had close relations with Bavaria and Baden Wuerttemberg for years. Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder is set to visit Zagreb in May.

Plenković was in Munich to attend a security conference at which 600 officials, diplomats and experts from all over the world discussed current security problems.

More diaspora news can be found in the dedicated section.

This will be Plenković’s second visit to Berlin.