ZAGREB, 16 July 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Friday that the importance of vaccination against COVID-19 must not be downplayed, appealing to people to get vaccinated.

"I strongly reject any downplaying of COVID-19," Plenković told reporters during a visit to Farkaševac, a municipality in the northeast of Zagreb County, when asked to comment on the statement by President Zoran Milanović that it was not politically intelligent to put pressure on half the population to get vaccinated.

The prime minister said that the COVID-19 crisis had so far cost Croatia HRK 34 billion and that the matter should be addressed seriously. "This is very important. One should not downplay it but should try and help get as many people as possible to get vaccinated."

Asked why he did not condemn statements by Gordan Lauc, a member of the government's Science Council, who has publicly downplayed the benefits of vaccination, Plenković said that Lauc was speaking on his own behalf and not on behalf of the government.

"He is speaking on his own behalf, certainly not on behalf of the Council. Only I can speak on behalf of the Council after it has convened. Do not attribute to the government something that someone says on their own behalf," Plenković said.

The Council members have voluntarily decided to make their own contribution, and the cabinet members have made it clear to them that they can speak in public only on their own behalf and in line with the general agreement of the Council, he added.

"The government can in no way be connected with anyone's statements, We distance ourselves from such statements," Plenković concluded.

For more on politics, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 15 July 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday he believed a social deal would be reached between the state and citizens on vaccination against COVID-19, calling on everyone who can get vaccinated to do so for the benefit of all and stressing that the "tool" for that has been ensured - the vaccine.

In an interview with the HRT public broadcaster, Plenković stressed the goal of vaccination was to gain collective immunity against COVID-19, recalled the government had provided enough vaccines, and congratulated everyone who had been vaccinated, with the percentage of vaccinated people in the adult population now standing at 46.3%.

The prime minister believes the agreement reached with employers would be implemented and that up to 70% of those employed in companies that will apply for business support due to the consequences of the pandemic would get vaccinated.

Earlier on Wednesday, cabinet ministers and social partners held the second round of negotiations at which it was proposed that businesses, where over 70% of workers have been vaccinated against COVID, would get payments for all workers, while those with lower percentages would get payments proportionate to the number of workers with COVID certificates.

PM Plenković appealed for common sense to prevail and solidarity so that all get vaccinated except those who cannot for medical reasons.

Railways - the largest investment

Talking about Croatia's National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the prime minister said no one, including Europe, was imposing reforms on us, but we knew ourselves that we had to carry them out.

He recalled that in addition to COVID, which hit the entire world, Croatia had four times more costs due to the 2020 earthquakes. Plenković explained that was why the entire National Recovery and Resilience Plan was based on the government's program and the national strategy, the key components of which were the economy, investments in all sectors guided by the logic of green and digital transformation and transition.

As for the announcement about the creation of 100,000 new jobs, the prime minister stressed we would achieve that in the sectors where we wanted - in the ICT sector, which was achieving phenomenal results in Croatia, with or mostly without the state, but also in traditional, tertiary industries, such as hospitality and tourism, which were yet to experience real recovery and investments.

Plenković recalled a huge step forward had also been taken in the energy sector and transport infrastructure so now, he said, we only had to make investments in the railway.

On 1 July, the Plenković cabinet adopted a document on the modernization and restructuring of the railway sector, which contains the main reform elements and presents an action plan for the reform of the railway sector. Croatia plans to invest about HRK 33 billion in upgrading the rail sector until 2030.

Status of Bosnia and Herzegovina Croats

Commenting on recent statements by President Zoran Milanović on the status of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the prime minister said there was nothing new in them.

Because, he recalled, the position of the government and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has been for years that Croats, as one of the three constituent peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina, must be equal, and the Dayton-Paris peace agreement must be respected.

He recalled that issue had existed since 2006 when Bosniaks elected a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Croats on the territory of the Federation entity, and that unfavorable "electoral engineering" had unfortunately been repeated several times since, the last time in 2018.

For more on Croatian politics, both local and national, make sure to bookmark our dedicated politics section and stay in the loop.

ZAGREB, 10 July 2021 - Croatia has managed to preserve its firm financial reputation, while weathering the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences of the 2020 devastating earthquakes, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in his speech at the 14th edition of Dubrovnik Forum on Saturday.

The fourteenth annual international conference titled "Dubrovnik Forum: (Post)-Pandemic Geopolitics - Together in a World Apart" focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the geopolitical relations and global economy. The programme includes three panels: "Unmasking the Geopolitics of a Post-Pandemic World"; "The International Community and the Western Balkans: How to End the Quarantine?"; and, "European Union, Three Seas Initiative and 17+China: How to support Central and Eastern Europe’s economic growth and societal development?".

Addressing the forum, PM Plenković said that Croatia's financial reputation remained firm owing to good results in the pre-pandemic period.

After being hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the devastating earthquakes, Croatia is now learning how to endure the pressure and tap considerable financial funds so as to provide the citizens with the real development that is evolving into two directions: admission to the Schengen Area during 2022, and the full readiness in 2023 for the admission into the euro area, he said.

The Croatian PM underscored the importance of international cooperation, notably joint efforts within the European Union.

The prevailing opinion of European leaders last summer was that we were faced with a huge problem that required the proper solution. The only way to find the solution for that big problem was to make agreement on the EU Next Generation instrument and withdraw a great amount of money for the recovery, Plenković explained.

He recalled that the European Commission had recently given its greenlight to Croatia's National Recovery and Resilience Plan, worth €6.3 billion, which could significantly boost the country's Gross Domestic Product and create 21,000 new jobs by 2026. 

The greenlight from Brussels is an important step towards the EU disbursing funds in grants and loans under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

The EU plan for the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic was described by the Croatian prime minister as the wisest move.

He also recalled that at the onset of the pandemic, Craotia did not have enough equipment and protective clothes to address the crisis. Only one telephone call to Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang was enough and the problem was solved, the Croatian PM added.

During his key-note speech Plenković said that the developments in the western Balkans was one of the topics of the Dubrovnik event and he reiterated his support to Balkan countries' striving for EU membership.

He expressed hope that Bulgaria and North Macedonia would find a solution to their bilateral dispute as soon as possible.

The time has ripened for Albania and North Macedonia to finally start their accession negotiations, he added.

PM recalled that Croatia perceived Bosnia and Herzegovina as its most important neighbour in the historical, geographic and cultural sense.

We support the current process that is being conducted with the assistance of the USA and the European Union in relation to efforts to amend the election law in that country. We believe that this issue should be settled and that institutions should include legitimate representatives (of constituent peoples) and that we should comply with the letter and law of the Dayton Agreement, Plenković said.

All the three constituent peoples should be equal, and the moves being taken since 2006 have not made Croatia happy. We do not think that such moves are conducive to the good functioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he said.

Croatia also supports reforms being taken in other EU membership aspirants: Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo.

Plenković conveyed Croatia's readiness for the strengthening of cooperation in the Mediterranean region and announced that in September Croatia and Slovenia could join the informal group of Mediterranean countries called MED 7.

For more on business, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 9 July 2021 - The Conflict of Interest Prevention Commission decided on Friday not to take action against Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and ministers Oleg Butković, Nikolina Brnjac and Marija Vučković since they were found not to have violated the Conflict of Interest Prevention Act.

The Commission met today to look into a complaint claiming that Prime Minister Plenković, Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Butković, Minister of Tourism and Sport Brnjac and Agriculture Minister Vučković had travelled across the country during the recent campaign for local elections at the expense of the state budget.

Tončica Božić, the rapporteur on the case, said that Plenković and his ministers had visited Split to attend a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the formation of a Croatian Army brigade and to meet with the mayor for talks on the tourist season, COVID-19 vaccination, and infrastructure improvement.

Božić said that Plenković and his aides had also visited Rijeka, where they met with representatives of the 3. Maj shipyard and visited the building site of a new hospital, and Koprivnica, where they discussed the construction of a second railway track.

"Prime Minister Plenković was performing his official duties and was accompanied by his aides, his cabinet ministers," Božić said. "The fact that they expressed their support to their party colleagues or potential candidates of their party during the campaign for local elections in these cities is not a question for this Commission, but for the Electoral Commission," she added.

The Commission also took no action against former minister and MP Tomislav Tolušić, MP Josip Đakić and Virovitica mayor Ivica Kirin. 

For more on politics, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 9 July 2021 - The LNG terminal on the northern Adriatic island of Krk has put Croatia on the energy map of Europe and the world, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković told reporters in Sofia on Friday where he was attending a summit of the Three Seas Initiative.

The aim of this initiative is to connect the countries of Central Europe, from the Baltic to the shores of the Black Sea and the Adriatic. The initiative is backed by the United States, and Croatia, as a participant, has a number of projects, Plenković said, citing the LNG terminal on Krk island.

"This year Croatia has opened its LNG terminal at Krk, putting itself on the energy map not just of Europe but of the world as well. We believe that in this way Croatia has made a great contribution to cooperation in the energy sector as part of this initiative," the prime minister said.

The Three Seas Initiative was launched by Croatia and Poland at a meeting in Dubrovnik in the summer of 2016 to promote trade and infrastructure, energy and political cooperation in the region between the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Seas.

The LNG terminal at Krk is important to Croatia because it is connected to an existing terminal in Poland.

Plenković said that Croatia would use funds for projects that would benefit all countries participating in this initiative. 

The participating countries are: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

For more on politics, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 8 July 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday there was a certain increase in the number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 with the first dose, including 8,000 yesterday, which he said was encouraging.

"It's evident that our topics from the last government session have encouraged a certain number of our fellow citizens to be vaccinated," he said at a cabinet meeting, a week after he said that the government would make job-keeping payments conditional on worker vaccination.

Any minority should feel safe and free

Plenković also said that "members of minorities, any minority, sexual, ethnic, should feel safe and free."

He added that some politicians in Croatia still did not realize that minority rights were not a privilege but a guarantee of equality.

"In Croatia, minority rights are a constitutional and legal category, and I insist that they are not to be tolerated but honored," Plenković said, adding that he considered attacks on the LGBT community a hate crime. "We don't want that, we don't agree with that."

He also condemned the hate leveled at MPs of the Bridge party, saying it was unacceptable.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page

ZAGREB, 30 June 2021 - Construction works on a regional training center for fire-fighters were inaugurated in Brčići in the Vučevica area on Wednesday as part of the Firespill project, which is part of the Italian-Croatian cross-border cooperation program.

The HRK 120 million project is financed with EU funds, including 65 million envisaged for projects in Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia.

Inaugurating the works, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said the government gave the land on which the center was being built, thereby contributing to the development of that area.

He said Brčići was a good location as it was close to the Operational Fire Command in Divulje, the main fire command in the country, and that he was "confident it is another good example of utilizing European Union funds."

Plenković said the new training center for firefighters was an important project for Split-Dalmatia County and all of Croatia was it would raise fire-fighting to a new level.

He said his cabinet had strengthened fire-fighting and that Fire Chief Slavko Tucaković managed an annual budget of HRK 450 million.

For more news in Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, 28 June 2021 - Croatia will realise four big projects in the next three years, the Pelješac Bridge, joining Schengen and the eurozone, and buying fighter jets, and will also use them for the necessary reforms, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday.

Croatia's road to independence was difficult, but the years ahead will not be easier if we don't prepare for the world that is coming, he said at a conference on Croatia's key successes, organised by Hanza Media on the occasion of Croatia's 30 years of independence.

Plenković said the government's ambition was to join the eurozone on 1 January 2023 and that the multipurpose fighter jets would arrive in early 2024.

Health reform framework in the autumn

"Reforms are key" and all that we have now are remnants of past administrations, policies, circumstances, weaknesses as well as daring, he said.

He singled out the judicial reform, resolutely stating that "the judiciary is not the HDZ's."

State administration will be strengthened because it must be more efficient, counties will not be changed but there is room to merge municipalities, which will cut costs, Plenković said.

The privatisation of the state-owned portfolio will continue while advancing corporate management, he said, also underlining the importance of education and health reform.

Healthcare has generated enormous expenses for years, but there is a concept of a solution which should be hammered out in the near future, Plenković said, adding that many laws would be amended in the autumn to make it easier to run the health system.

He said it was necessary to make progress in demography and also highlighted climate change.

"It would have been better had we solved some things faster," he said, but added that with "these three to four steps we will do in the next two and a half years, and (with) the money we ensured for the next ten years, we have indeed created prerequisites for development that we never had."

Vaccination is also an economic issue

Plenković called on citizens to get vaccinated against COVID-19, saying it was also an economic and financial issue, and that the tourist season could be lost if Croatia was declared unsafe.

He said it was a matter of personal responsibility and warned about the threat of new variants and a fourth wave of coronavirus.

Croatia's road to independence was difficult and demanding

Looking back over the past 30 years, Plenković recalled that Croatia had been a victim of Greater Serbia aggression but that it managed to build an army and defend its freedom.

He said the 1991-95 war claimed many lives and caused big destruction, which cost Croatia 15 years of development because pre-war GDP was restored only in 2004. He said 15% of homes were destroyed, that the war damage amounted to 160% of the pre-war GDP, and that over 150,000 houses were rebuilt after the war.

Plenković said the second decade of Croatia's independence saw the beginning of economic transition and key steps towards the realisation of geostrategic goals, including joining NATO in 2009 and completing EU accession negotiations by the end of 2011.

Those were years of strong GDP growth, but will lots of borrowing, followed by the global crisis which lasted until 2013, when we joined the EU, a historic success, he said.

He added, however, that Croatia started utilising the benefits of EU membership only in 2016 because only 9% of the funds available had been contracted by then, as against 120% now.

Plenković said that between 2012 and 2015 Croatia fell from 61 to 60% of the EU's GDP average, while in the past five years, before COVID-19, GDP per capita was raised to 65%, falling to 64% now.

He said that in the past five years quality of living had improved, with considerably higher wages, pensions, and social and maternity allowances. The average net pay in that period went up by HRK 1,440 to 7,082 this past April, while the minimum net pay went up by HRK 904 to 3,400, he added.

Speaking of employment, Plenković said the number of pension insurees fell by 90,000 between 2009 and 2016, while going up by 134,000 to over 1.5 million in the past five years.

He said the biggest problem of his first term in office, from 2016 to 2020, was saving the Agrokor conglomerate from bankruptcy, adding that the Petrokemija company was restructured and shipyards' debts were settled during that term also.

He recalled that for the first time, Croatia had a budget surplus for three consecutive years. "Before the pandemic, we relieved the corporate sector by more than HRK 11 billion in taxes and administration, the credit rating was raised to investment level."

Strong international position

Plenković said Croatia had a strong international position and that EU funds helped to carry out strategic projects such as the LNG terminal on Krk island.

He said he expected the U.S. to waive visas for Croatian citizens this autumn, also because of the good political and military ties.

He said good relations had been built with China and that China helped Croatia a lot at the start of the pandemic.

Plenković went on to say that Croatia had secured another €25 billion from the EU for the next ten years, and that it was in a more difficult situation than others because of the two strong earthquakes that hit last year.

The COVID crisis has cost us HRK 34 billion, he said, adding that unlike Croatia other countries did not have HRK 128 billion in earthquake damage.

We have ensured HRK 11.1 billion for wages and 700,000 jobs have been retained in the past 15 months, he said.

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan was made for green and digital transition, he said, confident that the realisation of the measures contained therein in the next two years would ensure an additional GDP growth of 1.4%.

For more on politics in  Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 24 June (Hina) - Every EU member state should make its own decisions on measures for curbing the pandemic based on its own assessments, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Brussels on Thursday ahead of a two-day summit.

"So far we have been in favor of a situation where every state and every public health system is able to make decisions based on its own assessments. We have been functioning that way all this time," Plenković said.

One of the topics of the summit is a debate on a coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, there will be a discussion on economic recovery, migration and external relations, including those with Turkey and Russia.

Some member states, including Germany, are pushing for the EU to agree on stricter and more consistent restrictions on travel from areas affected by new strains of coronavirus. German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized Portugal for its decision to allow British tourists to enter the country despite the fact that the Indian/Delta variant of coronavirus is prevalent there.

On the other hand, member states more dependent on tourism are advocating a more liberal approach.

"At the moment, Croatia has a fairly good epidemiological situation, a low number of new infections, fewer patients in hospitals, fewer deaths. The number of persons vaccinated with either the first dose or with both doses is gradually rising," Plenković said.

He added that freedom of movement was a fundamental value of the EU and that it had to be re-established.

"Freedom of movement enables a normal life, normal circulation of people, capital, trade, and ultimately tourism. Tourism is very important to us, we expect this tourist season under the slogan 'Safe Stay in Croatia' to be more successful and better," Plenković said.

EU's twin-track approach to relations with Russia

Relations with Russia will also be discussed at the summit. Ahead of the summit, Germany and France proposed that Europe adopt an approach to Russia where it would on the one hand threaten it with the possibility of new economic sanctions and on the other hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The EU is already following a twin-track approach. Last week EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell issued a report warning that the EU should prepare for a further downturn in its relations with Russia and proposed that the Union simultaneously reject Russia's behavior, exert pressure and engage in dialogue with Russia.

Croatia against discrimination against any minority

One of the topics not on the agenda but which cannot be avoided is the issue of Hungarian law which has been condemned by most leaders due to discrimination against the LGBTIQ community.

Prime Minister Plenković said that Croatia's position was clear against discrimination.

"We are against any kind of discrimination, against any minority, anyone's human rights, and we are very clear about that," Plenković said, adding that the European Commission, as the guardian of the EU treaties, has the task of checking whether certain national laws are in line with EU values and the acquis. "We are against any form of discrimination and see no need to additionally join some positions or declarations."

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 18 June 2021 - The Conflict of Interest Commission did not instigate proceedings against Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Friday because it did not establish that he had exerted influence on the appointment of an advisor at the Croatian Embassy in Moscow.

It has been established that Plenković, as an office holder, did not participate in the appointment of the advisor, who was appointed by the then foreign minister Marija Pejčinović Burić, the Commission said.

The Commission fined Homeland Movement MP Davor Dretar HRK 2,000 for failing to transfer management rights in two firms after stepping into office.

For more on politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated politics section.