First Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Cacic and Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic have stated that the Croatian government's position is that ministers should sit on the supervisory board of the national oil and gas group INA, which they describe as a company of public and state interest in which Croatia holds a stake.
Addressing reporters after Thursday's government session who asked about the possibility of the European Commission disapproving of Croatia's appointment of politicians to companies' supervisory boards in an EC report on Croatia due in April, Deputy Prime Minster Cacic said that the government's argument was that it was in the state interest to have ministers on INA's supervisory board.
"This is not a precedent but a fact that once the government decides that it is particularly important for it to protect its interest somewhere, it will do so," Cacic said, adding that other countries have a similar practice.
Describing INA as being of public interest, Foreign Minister Pusic said that "since this is about the interest of all citizens of this country and since the government is responsible for that interest, ministers' involvement in efforts to solve those problems means that one knows who is responsible".
She said that she was not familiar with any rebuke from the European Commission to that effect, adding that the report for April had not yet been written.
"The preparation of the report is under way, it will be made public in April," Pusic said, adding that it was too early to speak about the positions in that report.
Regardless of what this document will say, its role is to be a sort of early warning about the points for which we have to provide additional arguments, so as to prepare Croatia "for a comprehensive report, due in October this year," Pusic said, adding that she had informed her European counterparts on several occasions that the government's stand was that INA was a company of state interest.
Pusic also said that the "public interest (in INA) has suffered a lot so far".
"The Croatian state holds shares in INA, but has practically much less influence in relation to its stake," she added.
Before the government's session, Finance Minister Slavko Linic reiterated that a decision on the appointment of ministers to INA's supervisory board would be made by Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic and the government.
On the one hand, Brussels believes that they, as ministers, are corrupt, while on the other, the government has unsolved relations in INA with MOL and the irresponsible management of INA, Linic said.
