Government Was Not Unprepared for Gas Crisis

A new gas pipeline should be completed by 2010, which is one of the things the government is doing to avoid the gas crisis.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – The Croatian government was not unprepared for the gas crisis, Vice-Premier Damir Polancec told MP Zlatko Koracevic who asked him during question time in parliament whether he would resign due to the two billion kuna damage which the gas crisis caused Croatia. 

- Are you really prepared to take on the role of undertaker of the Croatian economy or will you resign – Koracevic asked Polancec, who he thinks is “the only government member who knows how to connect the facts”.

Koracevic thinks that the government was unprepared for the gas crisis because it could have been foreseen.

GDP growth 

- The government was not unprepared for the crisis. We did not sleep and I do not have ambitions to change my profession and become an undertaker – Polancec said. He reiterated that the current situation was caused by something that was not in the government’s control.

He said that 60 percent of Croatia’s trade is trade with the EU, which is in recession.

- If we have a growth of the GDP this year, and I believe we will, it will be a success – Polancec said.

Energy strategy

He stressed that with its new energy strategy, which is being prepared, the government opted for energy independence to avoid future situations as the past gas crisis caused by a dispute between Russia and Ukraine.

Asked by Vladimir Ivkovic what the government is doing to avoid a gas crisis, Polancec said that a new gas corridor should be completed by 2010, the one towards Hungary via Donji Miholjec.

He also announced the continuation of the construction of a gas corridor from Bosiljevo to Split and towards Dubrovnik and further onto the Adriatic-Ionic gas pipeline through which gas arrives to Europe from Azerbaijan.

NLG terminal 

Polancec said that the government was also selecting a location for the construction of a NLG terminal and that negotiations with MOL and Ina about Plinacro buying the underground gas storage have been completed.

A company will be separated from Ina which will in the future be Croatia’s main gas supplier.

- This all is being done so we can be the masters of our future – Polancec said.