The President of the Republic, Ivo Josipović, assessed today that the Government’s decision on the monetization of public debt of Croatian Highways and the Rijeka-Zagreb Highway through the granting of concessions for the management and maintenance of highways is a “move of necessity” due to the need to repay debts.
– It is obvious that the budget is empty, there is clearly a need to return the obligations that have been incurred. Whether this is the best agreement now, I cannot say – I do not know the details, but it is clearly a move of necessity – said Josipović after receiving participants in the planning and implementation of flood prevention and defense tasks.
He added that this is not about selling highways, but granting concessions, and that “it is not good to compare prices”.
According to the Government’s model of monetizing the public debt of Croatian Highways and the Rijeka-Zagreb Highway, through the granting of concessions for the management and maintenance of highways for a period of 30 to 50 years, the one-time concession fee depending on the duration of the concession would amount to between 2.4 and 3.2 billion euros, while some media today warn that Croatia has invested 5.5 billion euros in the construction of these highways.
Josipović did not want to comment on the ruling of the Zagreb Commercial Court in favor of the Consumer Association, which sued eight Croatian banks, as it is a first-instance, non-final ruling, and he assessed that it is necessary to “think about a compromise” between the two sides.
“I would like to remind that it is necessary, especially in these difficult times, to think about compromise, consensus, about ways to solve problems like this in a way that will not be an insurmountable burden for either side. And I think that we must nurture that culture of dialogue and respect for different interests, in a way that everyone survives, if I may say so, in the Republic of Croatia,” asserted the president.
The Consumer Association sued eight Croatian banks over loans in Swiss francs, i.e., currency clauses and unilateral application of interest rates, and the court ruled yesterday that the banks violated consumer rights because they did not fully inform loan users about all parameters necessary for making a decision. The banks were ordered to recalculate the principal in kuna on the day of the loan agreement at a fixed interest rate, and loan users can seek a refund in special individual proceedings.
