Croatia will start applying provisions from an EU pact for stricter budget discipline before it is obliged to start implementing it, and the country does not view the cutting of spending and of the budget deficit as an end but as a means to facilitate the growth, Croatia's Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said in Brussels on Monday.
On Monday afternoon the Croatian premier will for the first time attend a meeting of the European Council, the body gathering European Union heads of state or governments. Until its entry to the Union, set for 1 July 2013, Croatia has the status of an active observer at those meetings.
Before the start of today's summit meeting, Milanovic held talks with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele and European Parliament President Martin Schulz. Milanovic also attended a summit of the Party of the European Socialists (PES).
"What we are doing with the budget in Croatia is neither very nice nor popular, but it is necessary and this is what Europe is doing at its level, making agreement on the fiscal pact in order to limit the fiscal deficit and the public debt, and that is being integrated in European treaties. It is a strict rule, and we will apply it before we are bound to do so," Milanovic told Croatian reporters after his meeting with Barroso and Fuele.
According to Milanovic, at this moment Croatia may satisfy the provisions from the financial pact which is expected to be agreed upon in the course of Monday. He also said that there would be no much use of the deficit reduction if there was no growth.
The pact is to be applied in all EU member states except Great Britain. The purpose of the fiscal pact is to ensure financial discipline and deter the reoccurrence of the crisis.
"We are also struggling for time and investors' trust, so our goal is not to cut the deficit and reduce spending, it is only a temporary means to achieve the growth, and making it rise more and more so that all this story has a meaning," the Croatian premier said.
As for his meetings with the European leaders, Milanovic described them as "courtesy meetings".
"As the head of the government, I will here represent Croatia's interests together with a number of other people, this place is turning into a working place of Croatia's ministers and officials," he said.
Milanovic said that topics discussed in Brussels were becoming Croatia's internal policy, adding that Croatia was a sovereign country that "will know how to fight for its interests according to the EU rules"
Today's summit is focusing mainly on ways to rekindle growth and create jobs at a time when governments across Europe are having to cut public spending and raise taxes to tackle mountains of debt.
