Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has said that government grants, regulated by the 2011 law on state aid for agriculture, would be paid to farmers as stipulated by law.
"This is not a matter of political agreement but of the law which was in force in 2011 and the obligation of our government is to ensure funds for that purpose in the 2012 budget, which we are doing," PM Milanovic said on Thursday while commenting on protests of agricultural producers dissatisfied with the pace of payment of agriculture grants and with the government's plan to cut state aid for this sector.
In response to reporters' questions about rallies of disgruntled agricultural producers, Milanovic said they had no reason to be dissatisfied and that his cabinet would pay them everything it should regarding grants for 2011.
The premier warned that Croatia was allocating huge funds for agriculture grants and that those grants were poorly monitored, hence, less and less food was being produced.
"Something is not adding up," the PM said, adding that he wanted "clean accounts ".
It should be made clear under which conditions and how much wine-makers in Istria, or wine-makers and olive-growers in Dalmatia and farmers in Slavonia work, the premier said.
Asked whether he would receive representatives of agricultural producers for talks, Milanovic said there was no reason for their discontent and, if there was any reason for talks, it was the agriculture minister who should meet with them.
"In the future talks will be conducted by the minister, he is responsible for that in accordance with the guidelines and policy of this government and that policy encourages production and the settling of accounts. What we want is a higher food production," Milanovic said, adding that the previous government had under-performed in that segment.
Agriculture Minister Tihomir Jakovina told reporters that the protests were pointless and that the government would discuss the 2012 draft budget on Monday.
He said the protests were politically motivated.
We will talk when we know how many funds are at our disposal, he added.
The protesting farmers, who began their rallies on Thursday morning, dispersed a few hours later.
One of their leaders, Stjepan Kunovec, said the rallies had been staged alongside roads but the demonstrators had not obstructed traffic.
The protest organiser, the Croatian Chamber of Agriculture, also insists on an urgent meeting with PM Milanovic.
Extremely cold weather this morning prevented the arrival of many tractors and farming machines at protest sites.
