Croatia is due to lift another set of its stringent anti-coronavirus measures on May the 11th, and some cities are looking to the Lithuanian capital for guidance when it comes to the operation of cafes, restaurants and bars.
As Rozita Vukovic/Goran Penic/Vedran Marjanovic/Novac writes on the 1st of May, 2020, the city governments of Bjelovar and Pula have become the first in Croatia to copy the example of helping out those in the hospitality industry shown in the Lithuanian capital city of Vilnius, where they made squares, plateaus and streets available for cafes, restaurants and bars, more precisely for their terraces.
”I didn’t invent hot water and I’m not going to be the one to invent it. Wherever we see good and innovative ideas, we’ll just apply them,” said Bjelovar Mayor Dario Hrebak, who has become well known of late for his forward-thinking economic policies and for his moves in streamlining Bjelovar’s public administration.
The Croatian Government has decided to re-enable the operation of cafes, restaurants and bars on May the 11th, 2020, but exclusively on their terraces and subject to safeguards such as, among other things, the mandatory distance kept between tables (two metres) and a limited number of just two people per table . The Lithuanian Government, on the other hand, has allowed for the work of cafes and restaurants since April the 27th, with the decision of the Vilnius city government to free virtually the entire old town up for the terraces of cafes, bars and restaurants.
The mayor of Bjelovar, as he says, has already held a meeting with those who work in this sector and talked about this initiative, which could quickly come to life if it doesn’t get too bogged down in mindless bureaucracy. Namely, as has been found out, every hospitality worker/cafe owner who requests an extension of their terrace will need to possess a document that meets the minimum technical requirements. This is a form issued by the County Office before opening.
If a cafe, for example, requests an extension of its terrace, they will need to obtain a new document on the “minimum technical requirements”, which specifies how many tables are outside and how many are inside, for which they will pay a fee of 70 kuna. This document is very important, because if cafe owners don’t possess have this new document, they can get fined.
It’s worth recalling that in the past month, inspectors have closed down hospitality facilities due to many very minor failures in compliance with the anti-coronavirus measures. Therefore, in order to receive an approval of an extension of a cafe’s terrace, owners will first have to submit a request to the city administration with the exact dimensions of the terrace, and then in the County to obtain a temporary solution/document regarding the meeting of the minimum technical conditions and then wait for a decision to be issued on the conditions of operation of terraces.
The possible bureaucratic obstacles to the full implementation of the ”Vilnius example” in Croatian cities and municipalities should also be noted, and they were highlighted by Marin Medak.
”As soon as we learned about the example from Vilnius, we contacted Zagreb and some other city administrations, requesting that our own hospitality workers/cafe owners be helped out in one way or another. At the same time, we asked the Ministry of Tourism to pass a special regulation that would prescribe the working conditions of cafes, restaurants and bars in public spaces, because we’re aware of the huge bureaucratic obstacles that stand in the way of the Vilnius practice,” Medak explained. He warned that there are about 25,000 regulations in Croatia, many of which relate to this sector, so when, according to Medak, epidemiologists bring in some measures [related to coronavirus], they often don’t have in mind the network of rules and regulations that already regulate that area here in Croatia..
Bjelovar Mayor Dario Hrebak also pointed out that the state is in a situation where it needs a “restart” that is not merely a return back to the old way of doing things. The coronavirus crisis provides us with an opportunity to change what is not working now and remove the obstacles hindering Croatia’s own development.
”We’ve seen that processes can now be digitised at once, that the Ministry of Administration is transparently publishing where budget money is going and why. It turns out you don’t need a stamp for everything and anything,” commented Hrebak.
When asked about the cost-effectiveness of the operation of cafes, restaurants and bars in a special coronavirus-induced regimen, Marin Medak estimated that most cafe owners will not even open under the conditions now being discussed. According to Medak’s calculations, a cafe, bar or restaurant owner who decides to make use of a 32-square-metre terrace, while properly respecting the obligation of maintaining distance between tables and only allowing for a limited number of guests, will lose about 15,000 kuna a month after settling all obligations.
The City of Pula will, according to Mayor Boris Miletic, allow for the use of larger public areas as terraces rather than utilising existing ones at no extra charge. Miletic revealed that a number of measures have been adopted in Pula to help out business owners, which include a complete exemption from the obligation to pay communal fees, taxes on the use of public spaces and monumental rent.
”We expect that the cafe, bar and restaurant owners themselves are very likely to have some additional suggestions, since they can best evaluate what would help them the most,” they said from Pula.
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