Association of the so-called 'blocked' citizens whose bank accounts have been frozen due to debt, has published a copy of the letter President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović had sent to Prime Minister Andreju Plenković on Wednesday.

“I believe it is high time to devote the greatest possible attention, with utmost seriousness, to solving this problem, which has huge social, demographic, health and other kinds of consequences. In that regard, I am convinced that you meeting with representatives of the ‘The Blocked Ones’ Association would greatly contribute to solving this huge social issue,” Grabar-Kitarović said.

According to latest data by the Financial Agency (Fina), at the end of January some 325,000 citizens had frozen bank accounts, and their total debt amounted to almost 43 billion kuna (€5.7 billion). Around half of these are due to debts to banks for loans.

Earlier this month, government said it considered measures to help ‘blocked’ citizens, which would include write-offs of debts owed to state-owned utility companies, tax breaks for private companies in exchange for similar write-offs, as well as simplified personal bankruptcy procedures.