President Milanović at Day of Big Plans: Croatia should start considering building a nuclear power plant
“We should start considering building a nuclear power plant; Croatia must solve its energy problem,” said the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović at the “Day of Big Plans” conference, organized for the past 18 years by the weekly magazine Lider.
“Europe is struggling with energy. Not only is it struggling because there is not enough of it, but it is also making incomprehensibly unintelligent and self-destructive decisions. In this, we must look after our own interests while also paying attention to the actions of others, as they have a direct impact on us. What they say, think and do in Berlin concerns us as well; it directly affects us,” President Milanović explained, also speaking about the global situation and warning that “things are only getting worse.”
“Everything around us is slowly slipping out of control. The United Nations, as a system of international collective and cooperative security, has, in fact, ceased to exist. It is no longer there. Not only is it no longer there, not only is it dysfunctional, but everyone is making a mockery of it. The largest funder, the United States, has been constantly threatening to stop funding it, and in such circumstances of instability, insecurity and uncertainty, the entire order is under threat. But that is the world we live in,” said President Milanović.
Speaking about Croatia’s economic indicators, the President of the Republic highlighted the positive effects of EU membership. “The figures show that some things have improved. The average salary in Croatia today is 1,500 euros; that is not a small amount. However, what can be bought with that money? This brings us to the structural problem Croatia is currently facing. Prices here have simply started running wild. This is slowly getting out of control. The question is who can control this at all, and we can only hope that things will start to calm down,” President Milanović emphasized.
President Milanović further warned about the European Union’s internal problems and its position in the global arena. “The illusions about the European Union’s strategic autonomy that will come today from Paris and tomorrow from Berlin should not be taken too seriously. They should be taken seriously as a state of mind in those countries and among their elites, who simply do not want to give up the measure of power and influence they once had globally but no longer have. The same applies to Great Britain. I do not know whether these are things we can talk about openly, whether we have the right to do so or whether it is permitted, but while I am doing this job, and because of the trust I have been given, I speak about them because I believe they concern us all,” the President said, adding that “we should hope that there will be enough wisdom in European circles to understand their own limitations.”
In this context, he also commented on the election results in some European countries. “It is important to understand that no major transformation will take place in Europe, primarily because the EU is an undemocratic entity. The EU is neither extremely left-wing nor extremely right-wing; it is not bad in its essence, but it is not some brave new world. People are appointed to the most responsible positions in the EU undemocratically; they are imposed, and more and more people are seeing this and voting accordingly. And when they do, they are branded as ultranationalists, the far right or the far left. That is the wrong way to talk; that is not a dialogue, it is incitement and vilification,” President Milanović said.
Ultimately, the President of the Republic warned that Croatia must avoid the mistakes made by many European countries when it comes to foreign workers. “We must preserve the environment in which we live. Foreigners living in Croatia are people who have their role here, but we must not put ourselves in a situation where we repeat the mistakes – I hope we will not – made by many European countries that pretended that culture and history did not exist, and that they were so superior and dominant that they would absorb everything into themselves. They did not absorb them. They changed their societies, burdened them, and now have no answer to this; they regret it, but there is no retake. That exam is taken only once in a generation, and it is an exam we should not fail,” President Milanović concluded.
Welcoming remarks to the participants of the 18th conference “Day of Big Plans – How to Prepare a Company for Doing Business in 2027” were delivered by Miodrag Šajatović, Editor-in-Chief of Lider, and Irena Weber, Director General of the Croatian Employers’ Association. President Milanović was accompanied by Velibor Mačkić, Special Adviser to the President of the Republic for the Economy.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Filip Glas