Economic Council of the President of the Republic Holds Discussion on Croatia’s National Development Strategy Until 2030
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović participated in the 1st Session of the Economic Council of the President of the Republic of Croatia, at which the draft National Development Strategy of the Republic of Croatia for the period until 2030 was discussed.
The National Development Strategy until 2030 is evidently late and there is room to improve it, President Zoran Milanović and his Special Adviser for the Economy and Council Chair Velibor Mačkić said at a press conference held after the Council Session. The President added that they wanted to make a quality and constructive contribution to the drafting of that document, which was put to public consultation.
Council Chair and the President’s Special Adviser for the Economy Velibor Mačkić said the Strategy was evidently late and that, “constructively speaking,” there was room to improve the draft. It is essentially a “catch-all” document, said Mr. Mačkić, but it lacks clear priorities.
Everything is stated, but there are no measures as to when something should be done, he said, adding that the Strategy was drawn up primarily as an instrument to serve one purpose only – the absorption of EU funds. If that is so, the public sector and fund absorption play the primary role, Mr. Mačkić noted, wondering why that was not addressed given the current economic and public health crisis. “Problems which will additionally deepen after the crisis, such as all kinds of inequality, are not addressed either,” Mr. Mačkić emphasized.
“The document isn’t bad, but the question is whether it’s good enough. We will make our constructive contribution,” President Milanović said at the press conference. There are no unacceptable things in the draft Strategy, but there are some which are “not realistic” and which are perhaps too much in line with the European Commission’s expectations, he added. “Since we depend on that money, that’s more than 10 billion kunas a year, I guess those are the rules of the game,” said President Milanović.
The President recalled that he previously proposed to the Prime Minister to include representatives of the parliamentary opposition in working groups for drawing up the Strategy. “That didn’t happen in the end because the Prime Minister didn’t want to include representatives of the parliamentary opposition in this preliminary phase, which is ending soon,” the President reminded. He believes that was superficial and that Prime Minister Plenković could have done it “without any cost to himself,” adding that he would have benefitted politically.
President Milanović underscored that the Session of the Economic Council at which the National Development Strategy was discussed is a constructive contribution to the public consultation and that the conclusions from the Session will be made public. Responding to journalists’ questions, the President said he did not agree that the National Development Strategy should serve as the basis for other strategies. “Not everything can be a strategy, because then nothing is a strategy,” he said, explaining that while we can have, for instance, a strategy for science and education, calling all other documents a “strategy” would be devaluation. The President of the Republic also emphasized that his Economic Council was not a body that would compete against or “spite” the Government.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Tomislav Bušljeta