Failure to restructure the state-owned shipyards in Croatia is not an option the European Commission is considering and it would be the end of those shipyards, Dominique Van der Wee of the EC Directorate General for Competition said in Zagreb on Wednesday.
We are not considering such a scenario, it simply isn't an option, Van der Wee said at the conference "Towards EU Accession and After", organised by the Croatian Competition Agency.
He went on to say that Croatia's plans for the restructuring of the state-owned shipyards approved by the EC were a good deal and a long-term guarantee of the shipyards' survival.
The head of the EU Delegation in Croatia, Paul Vandoren, warned that before joining the EU Croatia had to reform the system of government grants so as to help competitive businesses with smaller, target grants.
The country's economy must get used to such an approach and conduct before EU accession, and companies should rely on their own resources rather than on government help, said Vandoren.
The head of the Competition Agency Council, Olgica Spevec, warned that the supervision of government grants after Croatia's EU entry would be taken over by the EC and that the Competition Agency's main activity in the future would be the fight against cartels, which she said caused most harm to consumers.
The conference "Towards EU Accession and After" focuses on the challenges of EU accession for the business community in Croatia and on challenges to cooperation in the implementation of legislation on market competition in the region.
