Cabinet ministers have presented outlines of the pension reform plan and the second phase of the tax reform to senior officials of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party on Monday evening, Prime Minister and HDZ leader Andrej Plenkovic told reporters after a three-hour meeting of the HDZ's top party bodies.

Plenkovic said that the ideas presented were received well, and that he expected further public consultations and debates on the best and viable solutions. He added that Labour Minister, Marko Pavic, would inform HDZ’s coalition partners of the pension reform at a meeting on Tuesday after some of them had already voiced criticism of the proposed measures.

“I believe their views will be much more affirmative than some of their initial comments,” Plenkovic said, adding that he expected that a discussion on the substance and details of the pension reform would follow.

“The purpose of the pension reform is to ensure long-term sustainability of the pension system, adequate pensions and the equality of present and future pensions, to increase the average pension in relation to the average wage… address the situation where a lot more people are going into some form of early retirement than old-age retirement, and try to reduce their numbers,” Plenkovic said.

He said that the pension reform proposal was being prepared for public discussion and that it was not about dismantling the second, privately-run, pension pillar.

“It is important that we inform the public that the pensioners of today have absolutely no reason to feel threatened about their pensions. On the contrary, future pensioners will know where their contributions will go, what their pension will be, and they will be given a choice. The second pension pillar is not being dismantled. The labour and pension system minister (Marko Pavic) has explained all these details to the HDZ leadership, and he will explain them to our coalition partners tomorrow,” Plenkovic said.

Plenkovic was also asked to comment on the meeting of the Council for Demographic Revitalisation, a body set up to propose measures to spur dwindling birth rates in the country. He said he was pleased with what had been agreed at the meeting, which was also attended by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, and added that its aim is to devise sustainable and affordable demographic measures to reverse the negative demographic trends.

“I think we had a very good discussion. The ideas of the government and the President are very close. It is important that what we are doing can pass the fiscal assessment, and the fact that the President immediately signed the Child Benefit Act, which changed the regulation on child benefits and extended the right to another 150,000 children, shows how committed we all are in enabling families to decide on having more children,” Plenkovic said.

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