As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Milan returned home to Croatia after living and working in Germany for eleven years. He moved his family and construction company to his native town of Imotski, in the rugged Dalmatian hinterland.

“It’s definitely a final thing. I missed my homeland, Imotski, Zagreb… all of that so much, and I want to be there now. It isn’t necessarily that Croatia has improved so much, it’s more than Germany is collapsing. Salaries increased by 10 to 15 percent, but alongside that, everything became abnormally expensive,” stated Milan Katanušić for RTL.

Among the Croats in Germany not planning to return home is Marija from Zagreb, who has been living in Munich for a decade now and plans to stay there. In addition to having a good and secure job in finance, she and her colleagues also developed a mobile application (app) with advice for those moving to Germany.

“I finished college in Germany, started a family, started two businesses… If someone had asked me where I would be ten years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to say with certainty that it would be Germany,” stated Marija Šimić.

“There are still plenty of Croats in Germany, but many can’t live there with their average German pensions, so it’s a little easier for them to go back to Croatia at that point,” explained Katanušić.

For the first time in a decade, more Croats emigrated from Germany than immigrated

Last year, far fewer foreigners immigrated to Germany than in previous years, and the number of Croatian citizens who immigrated to Germany fell for the first time, the Federal Statistical Office announced. “Germany recorded a decline in the number of immigrants last year. While 2,665,772 foreigners arrived in Germany in 2022, last year that number stood at 1,932,509,” the Federal Statistical Office claimed in a statement.

At the same time, considering that 1,269,545 foreigners emigrated from Germany, the net number of immigrants fell to 662,964, which is a noticeable drop compared to 2022, when the net number of immigrants was 1,462,089.

This decline is primarily associated with the record number of refugees from Ukraine who immigrated to Germany back in 2022, and whose number dropped significantly in 2023.

For the first time since Croatia’s entry into the European Union (2013), in 2023, more Croats emigrated from Germany than immigrated to it. That means that last year, 20,604 Croats immigrated to Germany, which is the lowest number since 2013, when Croatia acquired full EU membership. Last year, 24,241 Croats emigrated from Germany, which means that in 2023, the number of Croats living in Germany dropped by a significant 3,637.

A total of 434,035 Croats were registered as living in Germany at the end of 2023. A few years earlier, in 2016, 332,605 Croats were registered in Germany.

The post More Croats Leave Germany Than Move There appeared first on Total Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the City of Zagreb purchased eleven used German trams from Augsburg for 2.7 million euros without VAT.

As confirmed by Večernji list from the Augsburg city transport company, the first GT-6 tram models, the arrival of which should at least temporarily ease the chaos ruling over ZET’s timetable, will arrive in the week from December the 4th to the 10th this year. According to the contract, the first vehicle was supposed to arrive in ZET’s garage back in October, the deadline was then extended to November, and now it’s been extended yet again to December.

The biggest difficulty, according to some reports, is the documentation, that is, the documents for the extraordinary transport of vehicles weighing several tonnes and which are more than 20 metres long. The organisation of such work is complex and it’s therefore necessary to prepare special documentation for each of the countries through which the tram passes on its way to the City of Zagreb.

Before the new-old trams arrive on the City of Zagreb’s tracks, they will need to be fine-tuned in the ZET garage.

“All of the trams will be “Zagreb blue” in colour, That means that when the vehicles arrive in our workshops, we will paint them in the colours associated with ZET”, stated the company Stadtwerke Augsburg, which is in charge of public transport in that Bavarian city. Upon their arrival, it will be necessary to install the proper ticket validators, carry out a technical inspection and deal with the homologation, and so on. The first of these German trams should be on the tracks at the end of this year or at the beginning of next year at the latest.

The post City of Zagreb Purchases 11 Used German Trams appeared first on Total Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Croatia Airlines and Dubrovnik Airport have agreed on the return of the Dubrovnik-Frankfurt route to the winter flight schedule from October the 29th, 2023 until March the 30th, 2024, it was announced at a recently held press conference at Dubrovnik Airport.

Three times weekly

An Airbus 319 aircraft, with a total capacity of 144 seats, will fly on the Dubrovnik-Frankfurt route three times a week, but with a break from mid-January to the end of February 2024, Index writes.

The President of the Management Board of Croatia Airlines, Jasmin Bajić, expressed his satisfaction with the agreement reached and the return of a formerly very popular international route, in which the tourist boards of the City of Dubrovnik and of the wider Dubrovnik-Neretva County are also included.

An increase over the winter period

“They made it possible for us to return this international route between Dubrovnik and that German city together. It’s all part of Croatia Airlines’ post-covid strategy where we’re increasing the amount of international connections we have throughout the winter period. That’s equal to a twelve percent increase in flights and an increase of more than thirteen percent in terms of seats. We will have international flights going from almost all Croatian airports. This just goes to further prove that Croatia Airlines is an important part of the Croatian tourist and transport infrastructure”, said Bajić.

The post Croatia Airlines Bringing Back Dubrovnik-Frankfurt Route appeared first on Total Croatia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes, the Zagreb company Eccos has been dealing with solutions in the fields of electrical engineering, IT and security for 25 years now, and Germany has clearly recognised its expertise.

When this enterprise won a valuable contract back in 2018 for the improvement and maintenance of electronic and electromechanical access control systems for people and vehicles in all 80 facilities of the European Commission in Brussels, they became a true global player.

As explained by Krešimir Paić, who is the director and co-owner of Eccos together with Silvio Preglej, the EU project encouraged them to enter the German market and aided them in attaining jobs in that country. In addition to that, the move helped them to be perceived by potential future users as a serious and reliable partner.

“Given the fact that we maintain access control systems for more than 80 facilities used by more than 20,000 people on a project with the European Commission, it’s clear that this is a large project that requires a combination of experience, knowledge and resourcefulness – all of which are strongly possessed by our experts.

After the expiration of the four-year contract, our contract was extended for another year and a half, as much as was possible at that time without the need to launch a new tender, which confirms to us that they’re satisfied with the cooperation,” Paić stated, explaining that through projects with the EC, as well as other, smaller, but numerous foreign projects, they realised that they can successfully deal with the challenges of European clients and that they can compete on the highly demanding European market.

The Zagreb company Eccos also now has Deccos, based in Germany

“Back in 2020, we opened a subsidiary company called Deccos in Germany, which, much like Eccos, deals with the development and implementation of sophisticated solutions in the field of electrical engineering and IT. Emphasis is primarily placed on the provision of engineering services, commissioning services and service services in the industry for automation and drive technology, as well as in energy distribution and all related activities in the building, industry and energy sector.

Deccos has a lot of experience under its belt now, and we want to become one of the more widely recognised system integrators on the projects of the aforementioned activities in the western market. As far as future complex projects are concerned, we can jointly offer a quality service and be a partner that can be relied on. By expanding our business, we’re trying to export Croatian knowledge, skills and experience to Germany and other Western European markets,” said Paić.

They have been export oriented for years now

Although the Zagreb company Eccos can boast of numerous successful projects and there is almost no serious company in Croatia with which they haven’t cooperated to some extent or another, they have been export-oriented for years and are present on the markets of all of Croatia’s neighbouring countries: Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. They’re also increasingly oriented towards the Western European market. This IT company carries out a lot of work in Croatia itself, but they mostly work for large global and European investors.

Currently, a project is underway to build large data centres in Frankfurt, where Deccos’ part of the work represents an important segment of the project. The value of the works contracted so far in the first phase stands at around one million euros, and those works relate to the design and implementation of BMS (Building Management System) and PMS (Power Management System) systems. Due to the confidentiality obligation, the Zagreb company Eccos can only reveal so much of what it does for some of the globe’s largest investors.

Multiple projects across Croatia, including a very important one in Osijek

“Here in Croatia, we’re currently equipping the second part of the Učka tunnel with all of the electrical and mechanical systems as a partner of the large French corporation Bouygues. The project of the new hospital in Osijek is also now in its final phase, where we’re implementing technical protection systems, fire alarm systems, hospital communication systems and energy consumption systems. We’re also integrating the aforementioned systems into our own application for the integration of technical protection, fire protection and management systems in industry and building industry.

We also developed our own application for digitising cities – the Eccos Smart City Enablement Platform, which is used by Poreč, Rovinj and Cavtat. In addition to making it easier for people and tourists alike to travel and use parking services in the city centre, it also makes it easier for the city administration to manage the existing infrastructure and services,” explained Krešimir Paić.

Their current plan is to increase their presence on Western European markets, especially Germany. The Zagreb company Eccos is particularly active when it comes to projects related to traffic and data centres, and their desire is to implement and develop various innovative and optimal solutions. Eccos, despite its success, isn’t immune when it comes to finding qualified staff, either. That said, for now at least, they have not resorted to importing foreign workers.

The post Zagreb Company Eccos Conquers German Market appeared first on Total Croatia.

There is a high chance that Croatian Schengen entry will go ahead without much fuss, but a last-minute issue is also possible. At the moment, in all the Schengen capitals that are being asked about Schengen, Zagreb, the responses are positive to Croatian entry. However, it’s not over yet, because there can be unpleasant surprises where you least expect it, and some last minute problems, so we’ve heard, do indeed exist.

Schengen is much more than free border crossings and data exchanges, which, along with Eurozone entry in January 2023, is a question of confirming political identity for Croatia. For large member states and countries close to the center of the EU, identity is self-evident. For the Scandinavians, the EU is a rational choice. The British refused it for a multitude of reasons. It is crucial for Croatia and this confirmation would have a beneficial effect.

Over in Germany, a key part of the ruling coalition is the Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grunen), and their reaction to Croatian Schengen plans is unpredictable. If they decide to make a fuss at the last minute, Scholz’s government and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser will not be able to support Croatia’s entry. It’s more than likely that everything will be fine, but it ain’t over until the fat lady sings, as they say in Britain.

Previous negative indications from some countries to Croatian Schengen entry were motivated by internal political demands and disagreements. An example of that can be found in Sweden, where two completely different parties, the Swedish Democrats, and the Social Democrats, demanded all three countries (Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania) be stopped form enteting. The far-right Sweden Democrats are against it, and the Social Democrats ask “What benefit does Sweden have from the entry of Croatia into Schengen?”. At the same time, Ylva Johansson, Commissioner of the European Commission (EC) for Internal Affairs, whose responsibility includes Schengen, is a Swedish socialist herself.

As things stand now, the problem with the Swedes has been solved, that is, Sweden confirmed once again in Brussels that it will give passage to Croatian Schengen entry without causing any issues along the way.

The same is true in nearby Austria, despite recent issues the media has cited. There, the party in power, the OVP, is nervous because the public’s trust in the party’s good handling of the migrant issue has long-since dried up, and nostalgia has grown (according to polls reported by Der Standard) for Sebastian Kurtz, who advocated a hard-line migration policy for Austria. The threats against Croatian Schengen entry were aimed at increasing and consolidating support among VP voters, but the main issue is, as stated, Schengen itself, and not merely Croatia entering it.

The main reason for the increased number of migrants in Austria is that people simply come, pass through Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Croatia, and are directed to the northwest, towards “real” Europe. Many member states, such as Austria in this case, probably imagine Croatia as a kind of European Union military frontier, a border area that was once defined by Maria Theresa as a defense zone against the expansion of Turkey, and which later grew into a Habsburg war province.

Quite simply, the Austrians want fewer migrants or at least effective control of who enters and when. Their issue is with Schengen simply ”not working”, to quote one Austrian minister. At the same time, in these same member states, coalition or opposition parties on the left demand respect for the human rights of migrants.

The parties of the left, and especially the Greens, also understand the border areas in a better way, and what they demand is an individualised approach to migrants, so that one of the fundamental values ​​on which civilisation rests, namely respect for human rights, is not compromised. Recently, the Greens in the European Parliament also voted in favour of admitting Croatia to Schengen, because the argument of the right to enter, and for equal rights for all, prevailed in the end.

At the same time, many MEPs, and especially the German Greens, continue to show great dissatisfaction with the violation of human rights at the borders. There, the petition “Europe, stop paying for pushback” was recently launched, in which, along with Croatia, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Spain and Slovenia are all criticised for being verbally and physically violent towards potential asylum seekers, and resorting to violent measures of rejection (pushbacks).

The Greens are a complex party, and the only one among the major parties in all of the European Union that has a deeply idealistic vision, which is largely channeled into mainstream politics, and a smaller but highly visible part into activist actions. 

The lens through which these two opposing political formations see the incidents at the European Union’s external borders with migrants is different. The only thing in common is that both are dissatisfied with the European Commission. Some, like the OVP, and we’ve seen this from the remarks made by the Austrian Minister of the Interior Karner, criticise the too lenient approach of the Commission regarding the asylum policy and Schengen, while the German Greens criticize Frontex, the European agency that is at the external borders and helps the national border police in their work.

These members are dissatisfied, they want something from Greece, which they constantly criticise, and also from Croatia, which would like to enter Schengen, but what do they want exactly? What kind of border area should Croatia be? Should there be a military landscape at all? Nobody seems to have much of an idea. However, it will be necessary to have a long, hard think about what the Croatian borders, the EU’s external ones, will look like following Schengen entry in 2023.

For more, make sure to keep up with our news and politics sections.

The post Austria Won’t Block Croatian Schengen Path, But Germany Might appeared first on Total Croatia.

In order for the company’s ambitious plan to expand its business to the European Union market to come true, the founders of Koykan plan to attract an investment worth one million euros with the help of the digital investment platform Funderbeam, and would-be investors have confirmed their interest in investing in this rapidly growing Croatian street food franchise.

“Funderbeam is a global digital platform that enables startups and developing businesses to raise capital under more favourable conditions than venture capital and other forms of investment at that stage of business development. At the same time, Funderbeam also enables individuals to become part of the business success of innovative and growing businesses as small investors with an investment of as little as 250 euros. This is a significant change in the world of investments, since until now such investments were reserved only for large institutional investors,” explained Ognjan Despot, the director of Funderbeam for Central and Eastern Europe. He also pointed out that Croatian companies have already raised more than six million euros through various Funderbeam investments, while total investments through Funderbeam amount to more than 50 million euros.

“We didn’t just decide to take this step overnight. Over the past decade, we’ve learned a lot, often from our own mistakes, we’ve worked persistently, we’ve developed, and only now are we truly ready for expansion into the European Union markets. With the help of Funderbeam, our goal is to raise one million euros in Series A and with that spring our step, to open up fifty franchise restaurants throughout Germany and Austria over the next three years,” explained Boro Milivojevic, one of the co-founders of the Croatian restaurant chain Koykan.

Every company on Funderbeam must have a leading investor who contributes to the campaign’s credibility with their investment, and the leading investor in Koykan, Mato Marcinkovic & Partners, emphasised that here in the Republic of Croatia, it is necessary to activate the investment climate in promising companies that plan to expand to a much larger market in Europe.

Davor Bruketa, a partner in the famous Croatian branding agency Bruketa&Zinic&Grey, joined Koykan as one of the investors. “After hearing about Koykan’s story a few months ago, I decided to invest and financially support the project. The expansion of the first Croatian fast-casual restaurant chain is also interesting to my agency, so we decided together that Bruketa&Zinic&Grey will help with the design, digital advertising and brand activation for their franchise expansion,” says Davor Bruketa.

The Croatian restaurant chain Koykan wants to include all of its fans in this project, therefore both Koykan employees and major suppliers have become investors, and the desire is for customers who like the famous Koykan classics such as their burgers, gyros, wraps and other offers to join in as well. The fundraising campaign on Funderbeam is set to continue for another month, and the currently expressed interest in investing has already exceeded the initial expectations of the founders.

For more on Croatian companies and investments, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

The post Croatian Restaurant Chain Koykan Hopes to Conquer Germany, Austria appeared first on Total Croatia.

Public transport is the only real alternative to travel during these times in which we’ve seen such drastically rising fuel prices, and the examples of Germany and even neighbouring Slovenia show how this can actually work excellently.

The German Government’s idea for bus transport pricing through the aforementioned special model saw tickets sell out rapidly because for 27 euros, people can literally use these services as much as they want. If a bus ticket is bought in Hamburg, for example, it can be used without any problems in Berlin or any other German city, it can also be used on some of Germany’s DB intercity trains.

“Public transport is the only alternative to travel for many people with such high fuel prices and this is being widely recognised by European countries. We hope that the example of Germany will show the way this should be handled to the Croatian Government and the relevant ministry in order to help people out, because this is the only real solution,” said Hrvoje Mestrovic, president of the Coordination of Public Liner Carriers at the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP).

Croatian bus companies have, as has been mentioned, been dealing with an extremely unfavourable economic situation for a very long time now, with little to no attention having been paid by the state, in their opinion. Trying to balance business and preserve thousands of jobs continues to be a huge burden. Mestrovic pointed out that the state also has a clear benefit from introducing such a plan for Croatian bus companies because the money will be returned to the state treasury for a large amount of the tickets sold, which we have witnessed in both Slovenia and Germany.

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

The post Could Croatian Bus Companies Introduce Smarter “German Model”? appeared first on Total Croatia.

“Good news for everyone travelling to Croatia,” wrote Bild, the headline of which emphasised that there will be no more trouble with the exchange of the euro into Croatian kuna. It is explained that the European Commission, among other things, monitored “inflation and exchange rate stability” and confirmed that Croatia meets the criteria. It also stated that the European Central Bank has concluded the same and quoted the statement of the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who said that the introduction of the euro will strengthen the Croatian economy, but also that Croatian Eurozone accession will strengthen the euro.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung dedicated two articles to Croatian Eurozone accession. One noted that both the European Central Bank and the European Commission have determined that Croatia meets the criteria for the introduction of the euro and that this will be decided by EU finance ministers, according to Deutsche Welle.

Commentary published in the economic part of the FAZ emphasised that the European Commission “knows how to adjust economic data to suit political wishes”.

“Such a practice can be seen with the Croatian introduction of the euro on January the 1st, 2023, which is now being recommended by the European Commission. In doing this, it is acting quite arbitrarily with the convergence criteria of the Maastricht Treaty. That tready attests to all non-euro-states (except Romania, which is a special case) that they meet the criteria for state budget stability – with the strange argument that the stability pact has been repealed and that there’s nothing they could violate.

In the Croatian case, the treaty also has no interest in the fact that their debt amounts to about 75 percent of GDP, significantly more than the 60 percent prescribed in the Maastricht Treaty. This ignorance has its role models: Italy and Belgium were admitted to the monetary union as founding countries back in 1998, despite their great indebtedness, because they somehow belonged to that circle,” recalls Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The daily for economic issues, Handelsblatt, also emphasised that the ECB and the European Commission have determined that Croatia meets the criteria for the introduction of the euro and that it is set to become the 20th member of the Eurozone next year. It noted that ”all EU member states except Denmark have made a contractual commitment to one day introduce the single European currency, but governments can set the pace themselves. Sweden, for example, still has its own currency. In Eastern Europe, too, some governments are in no hurry to introduce the euro because they appreciate the benefits of an independent monetary policy,” wrote Handelsblatt.

Numerous other German media (ARD, ZDF, Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung,…) also reported on the green light of the ECB and the European Commission for Croatian Eurozone entry in 2023.

For more, check out our politics section.

The post German Media Says Croatian Eurozone Accession Good for Tourists appeared first on Total Croatia.

There’s no big riddle to try and solve here. Croats typically head off to the western EU countries en masse during their working lives, because their salaries in Croatia are too low. There’s not much of a labour force to speak of in Slavonia, the population of which literally flows down into the Adriatic during the summer months. There is also a huge lack in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia… The pool of personnel in Croatia’s immediate neighbourhood has also been somewhat exhausted, so more and more people are reaching for tourism staff from distant Asia, as was the case earlier on in the Croatian construction sector with workers being imported into the country from Nepal, the Philippines, India, etc, writes Deutsche Welle.

The same head-scratching and shock is repeated year after year…

Wages have, on balance, risen slightly, but obviously not by enough, but employers say they have no options at their disposal to raise them even more. They also claim that they aren’t in a position to raise anything else because of ongoing inflation, so one can often hear objections from the state to offering any further help. Damir Kresic, the director of the Institute for Tourism in Zagreb, spoke about this to DW:

“The state could definitely do something else, but not without working with employers and with the unions – first to develop a strategy for the whole economy. In doing so, they could answer the question of how many workers Croatia actually needs and from which professions. For years, I’ve been warning people in vain about this problem in tourism. But our approach is a yearly spontaneous one, and the amazement is the same every time, although the problem hasn’t changed. We’re really shocked by it each time, for some reason,”

Kresic then went on to explain that the solution lies in the long-term preparation of the education system, after defining sectoral needs. In addition, the Croatian labour market needs to be further regulated, so that workers receive adequate remuneration for their work, instead of a situation in which many prefer to accept income under the table, cash in hand, or simply work “on the black market”, because that way they get more to play with.

After all, if it’s only three or four months of work a year, there can be no question of stable employment and a strategic solution for anyone’s existence. Then it would be logical for workers to go to Ireland for equal pay, but for permanent employment, let alone twice as much money in their pockets.

“Among other things, we faced certain shortcomings in the engagement of the Asian workforce in Croatian tourism. It turns out that they aren’t a good solution for our employers in that sector, but now we don’t have many choices, at least not for this and next season. At the same time, I have nothing against these people from another continent, so let me be clear. They can be more diligent or honest workers than us, there are no rules, so I’m not talking about that. The problem is the service industry in which the Croatian worker here always offers a better authentic experience,” says Kresic.

In a similar way, a Croatian receptionist or waitress wouldn’t be a more successful worker in the Philippines than a person from there. He went on to explain that tourism simply means contact, local experience, understanding of the context, cultural integration. “That’s why we need planned staff production with adequate conditions to keep hold of people on the Croatian labour market, of course, because otherwise we’ll be training them in vain,” he concluded.

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

The post German Media Takes Swipe at Croatian Labour Market Struggles appeared first on Total Croatia.

Vodafone is joining Deutsche Telekom in enabling Infobip’s Mobile Identity mobile authentication solution, which will be available to business customers in the banking, retail and public sectors.

According to ICT Business, the rise in fraud over the past two years has shown a critical need for companies to invest in better security. While two-factor authentication (2FA) via email, SMS or push notifications ensures that a company can verify who a person actually is, it comes at the cost of users having to change authentication channels, disrupting the overall user experience and making things sometimes more complicated than they need to be from an end user perspective.

Using the Croatian Infobip company’s Mobile Identity solution, companies will be able to easily verify precisely who their customers are by their mobile phone number at every stage of their journey, from account activation and set up to payment and application download. All of this happens safely and quietly in the background, without the need for the user to enter a verification code.

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

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