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What will happen to state aid after July 1?

Everyone in the Parliament is interested in ensuring that the graduation exam proceeds smoothly and that graduates are not harmed – commented the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, SDP member Nenad Stazić, on the statement of fellow Deputy Speaker, Željko Reiner, who, on behalf of the HDZ, warned of a scandal at the state graduation exam, when instead of essays in Croatian, exams were distributed in three schools, leading to a postponement of the tests.

After a short break, the Parliament continued its session with a discussion on the proposed law on state aid, which aims to avoid a legal vacuum, given that with Croatia’s accession to the EU, the main tasks of the state aid system currently performed by the Competition Protection Agency will fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the European Commission.

From 2006 to 2011, a total of 57 billion 200 million kuna in state aid was approved, of which 21 billion 200 million was in agriculture and fisheries, said Deputy Finance Minister Boris Lalovac at the beginning of the discussion. The structure of state aid has been unfavorable, as it has mostly been sectoral – in metallurgy, railways, shipbuilding, and transport, said Lalovac. We hope that with our entry into the European Union, this structure will change and that there will be a greater focus on horizontal aid, as is the case in the European Union, and on regional aid, while sectoral aid will actually receive a smaller share, he said.

The proposed law regulates new competencies of state bodies, given that many existing ones had to be transferred to EU institutions. It regulates the procedure that precedes the application for state aid to the European Commission for approval, i.e., the procedure by which state aid is exempted from the obligation to report to the relevant authorities in Brussels.

The Ministry of Finance is given the authority to manage state aid policy shaped by the Government for a three-year period. Providers of such aid are required to regularly monitor the use of allocated funds on a monthly basis. The law also stipulates the obligation for state aid providers to maintain separate records of state aid and de minimis aid.