Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said on Friday that a bill amending the INA Privatisation Act, which stipulates that only the Republic of Croatia may acquire more than 49 per cent of shares of the national oil company, was finalised and that the government would first consult the European Commission about it.
"The bill has been prepared and translated. We are already behaving as the 28th member of the European Union and we will first consult our colleagues from the European Commission about the bill. I trust that decisions they will make will be good for Croatia," Kosor said in an interview with the public television network HTV on Friday evening.
Kosor said she had sent a letter to Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso explaining what the bill was about and why the Commission was asked to consider it as a matter of urgency. She said the Commission would understand that Croatia had to protect its own national interests without violating the principles of free market competition.
"I think the Commission will certainly understand that the Republic of Croatia, just as the members of the Union, must protect its own national, strategic interests. The Union is founded on free market competition, but also on the values of the fight against corruption and crime," the prime minister said.
She explained that the bill would be of a limited duration.
"I trust the Commission will respond in the best interests of Croatia," Kosor concluded.
