PM: EC's positions coincide with economy, finance ministries' Uljanik suggestions

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday the government had the motive and the political will to keep shipbuilding viable and help the Uljanik and 3. Maj docks, which must be done legally, and that the European Commission's preliminary positions coincided with the suggestions the economy and finance ministries gave Uljanik's management regarding its draft restructuring plan.

In January, when the government provided HRK 176 million in collateral, Uljanik's management undertook the obligation to draw up a restructuring plan and find a strategic partner.

The restructuring plan was not  drawn up by the government, he reiterated to the press in Beli Manastir after a reporter noted that the Commission had 75 remarks regarding the plan and asked if the Commission's 30-day deadline to improve it would be met.

Plenkovic said the economy and finance ministries tried to tell Uljanik's management from April to July to amend certain elements of the draft plan, and that the Commission's preliminary positions "practically entirely coincide with the suggestions" made by the two ministries regarding the draft.

He reiterated that, had the government not provided collateral, Uljanik and 3. Maj workers would not have received wages this year. He said the government had the motive and the political will to keep shipbuilding viable and help the two docks, which must be done legally but in a different context.

He said the financial situation in Uljanik was not a consequence of the government's but the management's work and that three scenarios were being worked on.

Asked to comment on Vukovar mayor Ivan Penava's insistence on holding a protest in the town next month, Plenkovic said he was glad that Penava signed a contract  in Beli Manastir today,  "that  oncerns his primary activity - to work on improving the conditions and quality of life for Vukovar's residents."

Plenkovic said there was no time to talk about the protest today, that they discussed it last week, and that he believed that it was as important to Penava as it was to him that all war crimes, which have no statute of limitations, be prosecuted, notably those committed in Vukovar and at Ovcara.

He said that should primarily be done by the police and the prosecution, and that "it's not a process which can be influenced by politics one way or another." There is a legal framework for that and independent authorities are working on it, he added.

"As for some other possible scenarios for this protest, I think everyone realises that the essence of the initiative is one thing and attempts at manipulation are another," he said.

Penava has announced a protest for October 13against, as he said, the authorities' inaction in the prosecution of war crimes.

Text and photo: Hina

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