Changes to the Reconstruction Act would make the process faster and more efficient

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Wednesday he himself was not satisfied with the pace of post-earthquake reconstruction because the government had secured the necessary funding "promptly", but he stressed that changes to the Reconstruction Act would make the process faster and more efficient.

Plenković made the statement in response to Social Democrat (SDP) MP Peđa Grbin's question when he would stop making excuses and start with the real reconstruction of Zagreb and the Banovina region, both hit by strong earthquakes in 2020.

One year since the adoption of the Reconstruction Act the only thing people have been hearing are excuses, while real reconstruction has not started either in Zagreb or in Banovina, said Grbin.

Plenković replied that the Reconstruction Act had been adopted by consensus, based on expert inputs, that the SDP too had voted for it and that damage caused by the earthquakes was extensive.

Earthquake damage four times the cost of COVID-19

Croatia is the only EU country which was hit simultaneously by the coronavirus pandemic, which cost the state HRK 36 billion, and two destructive earthquakes, which have caused damage four times the cost of COVID-19, said Plenković, noting that that fact meant from the very start that reconstruction would be a topic to be dealt with for years.

He noted that the government had wanted the law to meet two basic principles - safety of buildings and legal security, but that in practice, a number of problems had cropped up, from property-rights relations, particularly in Zagreb, to insufficient precision of rules for public procurement procedures.

It has transpired that we will have to disregard the issue of legality of buildings, that we will have to step up the process of removal of destroyed properties and that we will have to give citizens more money to pre-finance the process, he said in a comment on the government's plan to put forward amendments to the Reconstruction Act.

Grbin insisted that Plenković did not say when reconstruction would start, that the Reconstruction Act was not being implemented and that, if the reconstruction process continued at the current pace, it would be one of Croatia's biggest failures.

Not entirely ready for fourth wave of pandemic

Health Minister Vili Beroš said that the health system would be ready for the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic but that it was questionable whether Croatia was ready for it as a society.

Not entirely, the 52.26% of adults vaccinated with at least one dose is not enough to be relaxed ahead of autumn, he told HDZ MP Hrvoje Šimić, noting that unvaccinated people accounted for most of the new infections, hospitalisations and deaths.

Answering a question by Social Democrat Andrea Marić, who warned that the situation in the health sector was untenable and wanted to know when reforms would start, Beroš said that the government was aware of the situation and that he was determined to implement reforms to stabilise the system.

He noted that a draft strategy was being worked on, with three reform goals - accessible and quality healthcare, optimal use of resources, and the financial and organisational stabilisation of the system.

Text: Hina

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