Private sector won't be shortchanged in National Recovery and Resilience Plan

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday the private sector would not be shortchanged but significantly participate in the disbursement of EU funds as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

He was visiting Ivanić-Grad, where the press asked him how the drafting of that plan was coming along and to comment on employers' claims that at least half the European money should go to the private sector.

Plenković said the sector could count on at least 30% of the €6 billion in grants from the Next Generation EU instrument and on participating in the disbursement of other EU funds.

He recalled that Croatia has €24.2 billion in EU funds at its disposal, including €3.5 million in loans from the Next Generation EU and €12.5 billion from the next seven-year EU budget.

The prime minister said the government had given the private sector HRK 9 billion for job retention since the start of the COVID crisis as well as ensuring special liquidity loans.

The government has also "written off a huge chunk of contributions," all of it resulting in employment and unemployment being "within the pre-COVID frameworks," he added.

Everything except respecting law is politicising

Commenting on the election procedure for the Supreme Court president, on which he disagrees with President Zoran Milanović, who is recommending a candidate who did not apply for the job Plenković said that everything except respecting the law is politicising.

"There are no (legal) tricks. There is respecting the Constitution and the law that is in force. Everything else is politicising without any reason, a wish to make an issue out of the election of the Supreme Court president which seems incredible," Plenković told the press in Ivanić-Grad.

There is a prescribed procedure and the State Judicial Council (DSV) invited applications, of which everyone in the judiciary knew, he added.

"The law was passed after the SDP (Social Democrats) strongly criticised the existing procedure. When the law was being passed, they commended (the procedure), and now, all of a sudden, they are singing a different tune."

As for the DSV's claim that it does not have the instruments to again call for applications because the law does not specify that, the prime minister said this situation should not have happened and that the regulations that were in force should be honoured.

Unlike the president, who said parliament would debate his recommendation of Zlata Đurđević for Supreme Court president, Plenković said that under parliament's rules of procedure, that could not be put on the agenda.

Asked if he would meet with the president if he invited him, Plenković said, "I don't feel like communicating about that via the media."

"The man said he would call, he hasn't, so he is sending some message via our (ruling coalition) partner, Prefect Čačić. It's all bizarre really."

Speaking of Đurđević, the head of the Zagreb Faculty of Law criminal law department, Plenković said it was not about whether someone respected her because everyone knew the circle of people who could head the Supreme Court. He added that she had been Croatia's backup candidate for the European Court of Human Rights.

He said there was no constitutional crisis as the deadline for electing the new Supreme Court president was July, and wondered what prevented Đurđević from applying for the position earlier.

Text: Hina

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