ZAGREB, February 27, 2018 – Prime Minister and HDZ president Andrej Plenković said on Monday he would nominate a new emergency administration for the ailing Agrokor conglomerate this week, adding that candidates were competent people.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the ruling HDZ party’s Presidency and National Council, Plenković said he did not reveal the names of the candidates for the administrator and his deputies at the meeting, but stressed that they were competent people who could assume responsibility in the difficult stage of reaching a settlement.
“That’s why we are looking for people who can deal with that. Our only message is the common interest of the Croatian economy, jobs, the functioning of the companies within Agrokor and reaching a settlement,” he said. Asked if the candidates were people “from within or outside the system,” he reiterated they were “competent people who will join in all the activities very quickly.”
Plenković said the candidates for the administrator and his deputies were being vetted for everything, from formal conditions and potential conflicts of interest to competencies and anything of relevance to the public. He said Parliament Speaker and HDZ secretary-general Gordan Jandroković and Deputy PM and Economy Minister Martina Dalić had joined him and others in selecting the candidates.
Asked if he would consult Agrokor’s creditors and if their informal approval was required for the new emergency administrator, Plenković said the members of the Temporary Creditors Council fully backed the government’s work in this process at a meeting earlier in the day. He said the HDZ Presidency and National Council as well as the party’s ministers unanimously backed the government in nominating a new emergency administrator for Agrokor after Ante Ramljak resignation so that the conglomerate could be restructured and a settlement reached in the time envisaged by law.
Asked if he had confidence in the population measures of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy Minister Nada Murganić, Plenković said Croatia’s demographic problems did not happen yesterday and that many European countries were faced with them. He said the concrete measures the government adopted would turn the negative trends around but that those problems could not be resolved overnight.
He also said the Presidency adopted a financial statement for 2017 showing that the party was over three million kuna in the black.
