The Presidency of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, after a brief discussion, unanimously adopted changes to the INA shareholders' agreement giving management rights in the Croatian oil company to Hungary's MOL, former deputy prime minister Damir Polancec said in his testimony in the trial of former prime minister Ivo Sanader before the Zagreb County Court on Thursday.
Polancec said that all members of the party's presidency had been present at that meeting, adding that Sanader had made introductory remarks to explain the need to amend the shareholders' agreement given the changed ownership structure. At the meeting, Polancec presented a chronology of negotiations with MOL and dilemmas that needed to be addressed.
Polancec said that only minister Ivan Suker had raised the question as to how the decision would be presented to the public.
"After Sanader presented conclusions, there was no further discussion. The decision was put to the vote and was adopted unanimously," said Polancec, who had been a member of the HDZ Presidency from 2007 until his expulsion from the party in 2010.
He said that under the agreement MOL appointed a chairman of the Managing Board and had a majority on the Supervisory Board, which he said could not adopt strategic decisions without votes of the three government representatives on the board.
The HDZ Presidency also decided then to enter into negotiations with MOL to divest INA's loss-making gas business.
Polancec said that the HDZ had usually discussed important political issues before they had been discussed by the government. He said that none of the adopted decisions was contrary to Sanader's views and that the view of the party president was "binding on all".
