The Croatian government has prepared draft amendments to the law on the privatisation of the INA oil and gas company, they are now being translated into English and will be forwarded to the European Commission tomorrow for additional consultations on why the government considers the amendments necessary at the moment, Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said at a government session in Zagreb on Thursday.
"We have prepared those amendments and they are now being translated into the English language. We are in touch with our colleagues in the European Commission and we will forward the proposal to the European Commission tomorrow," Kosor said, adding that additional consultations would be opened so as to use the experience and previous decisions of the Commission in similar cases.
She said that this process would be conducted until a final court ruling was made regarding the INA-MOL scandal implicating former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader who had reportedly received 10 million euros from a MOL executive in return for securing management rights over INA for the Hungarian company.
A few days ago Kosor said that draft amendments to the INA Privatisation Act would be on the agenda of this week's cabinet meeting and that they would propose that none but the Croatian state could hold more than 49 per cent of shares in INA.
The announcement came after the Croatian investigating agency USKOK filed an indictment against Sanader, accusing him of having received 10 million euros in bribes for allowing MOL to acquire management rights in INA.
Kosor said today that dialogue would be opened with the European Commission and that Brussels would show understanding for this move from Zagreb. "I believe we will find the best solution through dialogue," Kosor said.
The European Commission believes that Croatian legislation is generally aligned with the European Union acquis communautaire in the area of free movement of capital and it has been in touch with the Croatian authorities to check information on the possible amendment of the law on the privatisation of INA so that it could establish if those rules are possibly being violated.
This statement came on Monday from the public relations office of EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele in response to the question how the EC would respond in case the planned amendment of the law on INA's privatisation was in contravention of EU rules. The office said it would continue to follow the case.
