After four and a half hours of ‘sitting’, nothing useful or coherent could be heard from the remaining members of the Economic Council (Šuker, Tipurić, Vedriš). They only discussed two dominant points – the fate of the second pension pillar and the package of anti-recession measures.
Although two weeks ago, when the Government proposed to reconsider the purpose of the second pillar, they promised that they would propose what to do with it today – today they say that they will discuss it (again!) in two weeks when all those involved in the pension reform will provide proposals on this topic. For now, it is only known that the second pillar remains. However, two weeks is long enough for opinions to change several times. Nothing concrete could be extracted about the package of anti-recession measures, not even what they rejected from previous proposals made by the Economic Institute. Council member Darko Tipurić only stated that the package is more or less agreed upon, and it includes some completely new measures that were not mentioned last time. This afternoon, the package will be finalized so that the Prime Minister can proudly present it to the public at tomorrow’s Government session.
Nothing new about the rebalance – there will be one, but when, is unknown! Or more precisely, Finance Minister Šuker says ‘when the conditions for the rebalance are created’. To the eternal crisis question – do we need the IMF – Šuker confidently replies: ‘we do not need IMF assistance, because we know how to do what is needed ourselves’. What to say but: Amen. (Gordana Gelenčer)
