ZAGREB, 3 March 2022 - Croatia's government on Thursday decided to send a convoy with HRK 1.8 million worth of goods and equipment to Moldova after the country took in a considerable number of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion.

Moldova has asked international organizations for help in accommodating the Ukrainian refugees.

Earlier in the day, the head of the Civil Protection Directorate, Damir Trut, announced in an interview with Croatian Radio that Croatia would send a humanitarian aid convoy to Moldova to help it cope with the influx of Ukrainian refugees.

The aid will include tents, beds, and other items for the accommodation of refugees, he said.

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ZAGREB, 1 Feb 2022 - Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman, who visited Chisinau on Tuesday, expressed support for the territorial integrity of Moldova which is faced with threats of pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

After meeting his Moldovan counterpart Nicu Popescu, Croatia's foreign minister reiterated Zagreb's support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Moldova within its internationally recognised borders.

The negotiations on Transnistria are being held by Chisinau and pro-Russian separatists as well as by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Russia, Ukraine, the European Union and the USA.

Grlić Radman expressed support for Moldova's efforts to be integrated in Europe.

Currently, Moldovan President is Maia Sandu, a leader who has put this 3.5-million-strong country on a pro-European course.

Moldovan Minister Popescu thanked Croatia for being a great advocate of the European integration of Moldova, and stressed that Zagreb and Brussels had always been with Moldova during its challenging times, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis.

Commenting on Transnistria, Popescu said that the current situation was complicated and that without the European support, it would have been even more complicated.

Popescu said that his country would like to join the Tree Seas Initiative.

The two ministers signed a memorandum on cooperation between the two ministries' diplomatic academies.

The two countries established diplomatic relations 30 years ago.

August 18, 2021 - The Champions League play-offs got off to a rough start for Dinamo Zagreb, who looked unrecognizable against Moldovan club Sheriff in match 1 in Tiraspol.

Croatian champions Dinamo suffered a brutal defeat in the first Champions League play-off match against Moldovan club Sheriff in Tiraspol. Sheriff won 3:0 thanks to goals by Traore (45', 80') and Kolovos (54').

Sheriff completely outplayed Dinamo and deservedly gained a big advantage before the return match in Zagreb next week. 

"A disappointing game; Dinamo was not Dinamo today," said coach Damir Krznar. 

"We failed to impose ourselves in our idea of possessing the ball. We failed to gain control of the match, against an extremely aggressive opponent. They didn’t give us air; they didn’t let us breathe; they won all the long balls. Sheriff was the one who had more desire, more strength, more energy today, and they taught us a lesson in fighting spirit and will, and in the end, deservedly won," Krznar pointed out.

"We have to start; we have to change the philosophy in a short time; we have to go back to where we were. Everything Dinamo did, they did because they are an extremely hard-working team. Today we weren’t; today we were trying to be a hacker team from the neighborhood," the coach concluded.

Mislav Oršić and Lovro Majer were among those who gave the least.

"This is the worst Dinamo match since I've been here; I don't know what to say, I have no words. Nothing went, from the beginning everything was bad, we even had some shots in the first half, and in the second half, everything fell apart," Oršić said in a statement for Arena Sport.

"All praise to Sheriff, but I think we failed first. We have to look each other in the eyes and prepare as best we can for the return match, prepare for another miracle at Maksimir; I hope we will succeed," concluded Oršić.

Moldova has never had a representative in the Champions League group stage, and after the first 90 minutes of the clash against Dinamo, Sheriff has come very close to achieving just that. Dinamo will have to play a perfect match on August 25 to compensate for this loss. 

Source: HRT

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As Adriano Milovan/Novac writes on the 2nd of April, 2019, the economic expansion period for most of the transition countries, including the Republic of Croatia, is now over, and in the coming years we can count only on very modest rates of economic growth, this was the message from experts from the renowned Vienna Institute for International Economics Studies (WIIW).

According to the latest forecasts of the Vienna Institute, this year, Croatia can expect a growth rate of 2.6 percent. However, in the coming years, economic growth will slow down even more, meaning that the Croatian economy will likely grow at a rate of 2.5 percent in 2020 and again in 2021. Although the GDP growth rate of 2.5 percent doesn't deviate much from the previous growth rates in Croatia, given that they were still less than in other comparable countries of the so-called "New Europe", it's worth noting that this rate is still less than was previously expected.

Additionally, and more concerningly yet, the Republic of Croatia will be among the new EU member states with the lowest rates of economic growth of all. On the other hand, the fastest growing economies among transition countries will rather surprisingly be non-EU European countries, such as Kosovo and Albania and even more surprisingly, Moldova, at least according to an analysis taken by the esteemed Vienna Institute. According to these forecasts, Kosovo's economy, for example, was to grow at a rate of 4.1 percent this year, in the following year at a rate of four percent, and in 2021, at a rate of 3.9 percent.

In their forecasts, the analysts of the Vienna Institute cited the slowdown of economic growth in the world as a whole, especially in Germany, and the strengthening of protectionism in world trade and uncertainty brought about by Brexit (should it occur at all), as among the main reasons for the ''cooling'' of the transition economies.

Openly, however, the question remains about how the current crisis in Uljanik will reflect on the Croatian economy as a whole. Vladimir Gligorov, a longtime analyst at the Vienna Institute and now an external associate, says the events in Uljanik will have negative effects on the Croatian economy in the short term, primarily through the activation of state guarantees and the cost of dealing with former workers who will be left jobless, but in the medium term, it shouldn't actually reflect all that much on the macroeconomic image of the country that significantly.

The attitudes of Croatian macroeconomists, Zeljko Lovrinčević from the Zagreb Institute of Economics and Zdeslav Šantić, the chief economist of OTP banka, don't differ significantly from the above statement from the Vienna Institute, and they also don't expect huge consequences on the Croatian economy from the collapse of Uljanik. Moreover, Lovrinčević believes that the first half of this year could be even better for Croatia than expected, whereas we will likely only feel a slight slowdown in the second half of this year and next year.

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Click here for the original article by Adriano Milovan for Novac/Jutarnji