Plenković: An Additional Billion Kuna for Farmers Starting Next Week

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced on Thursday at a Government session that the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agency (for payments in agriculture) will pay an additional billion kuna starting next week for 100 thousand agricultural households, which he assessed as an effective way of managing subsidies that he believes Croatian farmers will be satisfied with.

An additional billion kuna will be paid to farmers after advances of 950 million kuna were paid last November, Plenković said.

>>>EU Increases Subsidies for Agricultural Production Insurance

Plenković announced that next week in Virovitica, during the Bioexpo event which increasingly attracts international partners, he will hold the 4th subsequent session of the Council for Slavonia, Baranja, and Srijem. The Prime Minister, along with Minister Gabrijela Žalac, expects that the two special topics will be agriculture.

From Minister Tomislav Tolušić, for whom this is home ground, the Prime Minister said he expects a significant contribution. The second topic will be the economy, where Minister Martina Dalić will speak about numerous projects being implemented under the Slavonia project.

>>>DZS: Both Imports and Exports Increased Compared to Last Year

The good news, the Prime Minister said, is that in 2017 Croatian exports increased by 13.9 percent compared to 2016, while imports increased by 11 percent. Plenković stated that Croatia is oriented towards 65 percent of exports to EU member states and 70 percent of imports. This indicates that Croatia’s desire to approach and meet the criteria for the Eurozone is more than logical given the orientation of the Croatian economy.

Plenković also asserted that it is important for the Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović to continue active efforts in preparations for entering Schengen.

>>>Božinović: Our Goal is to be Fully Technically Ready for Schengen Next Year

– Our desire is to meet all criteria this year and during the next year, and then to have positive decisions made no later than during Croatia’s presidency of the EU (the first half of 2020), said the Prime Minister.

He concluded that we have well prepared the ground and that everything we are doing in this regard shows that we are a mature and responsible member that will be able to effectively monitor its external borders in accordance with Schengen criteria.