ZAGREB, September 12, 2018 – The Pula Town Council and the Istria County Assembly on Tuesday adopted a declaration seeking the salvaging of the Pula-based Uljanik shipbuilding group.
The document calls on all stakeholders in the process of the group’s restructuring to give priority to the search for a model to pay the group’s workers their wages and secure funds until the completion of the restructuring process. It also urges the government to take measures to help resolve the group’s current situation and make Uljanik a viable and successful shipyard.
“Istria County and the Town of Pula are unanimous in the position that the shipbuilding industry is of strategic importance for the region as one of its strongest export sectors. As a long-standing leader in industrial production, Uljanik must survive,” reads the declaration and calls on the government to treat Uljanik the same way it had treated other shipyards in the country.
Istria County and the Town of Pula are ready to make their resources available to help stabilise the shipbuilding group and want possible strategic partners to know that they will not support any speculation involving land or change the shipyard’s physical plan to harm the company or its workers.
The regional authorities also call on the government to urgently find a way to salvage Uljanik in cooperation with its management and workers and do its best to remove the damage caused by the cancellation of previous orders for the construction of vessels.
“We want the government to participate actively in the restructuring as a co-owner and partner because only the government can negotiate the group’s restructuring with the European Commission and carry it out. We want conditions to be created for viable shipbuilding and the government to ensure Uljanik’s competent management and establish protective mechanisms for state guarantees,” says the declaration.
The document also calls on stakeholders in the restructuring process to refrain from politicising the situation.
Four of 25 members of the Pula Town Council abstained from the vote on the declaration as did seven of 41 County Assembly members attending the session.
