A former member of the INA Supervisory Board, Abel Galacz, who was a member of the MOL team for negotiations on amending the INA shareholders' agreement in 2009, said on Thursday at the trial of former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader that, as a strategic partner, the Hungarian oil company had stabilised the business performance of Croatia's INA and upgraded its refineries which he said were now operating in accordance with European standards.
According to this defence witness, the biggest contribution of the 2009 amended agreement, signed by the cabinet led by Prime Minister Sanader, was the consolidation of the Croatian oil and gas company and its modernisation.
Investments into the refineries had been agreed in the first agreement in 2003 and were reinforced by the 2009 amended agreement whereby MOL invested big money in INA, the witness told the Zagreb County Court.
His testimony contradicted statements of Croatian executives in INA's management and supervisory boards who said that since MOL was given a dominant position in INA, the Croatian company has been going backwards.
Sanader is charged with having allegedly received bribes in the amount of 10 million euros from MOL in order to enable the Hungarians to have a controlling stake in INA.
