Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic of the HDZ party said on Thursday that it would be best if the Conflict of Interest Commission decided itself on the exemption of its chairwoman Natasa Novakovic concerning an application against Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and the Agrokor case.

The Parliament’s Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders and Political System, which convenes on Friday, is expected to consider who has jurisdiction in this matter.

Recently, the strongest opposition party — the Social Democratic Party (SDP) — has proposed that that parliamentary committee should adopt a conclusion under which a decision on the exemption of Novakovic would be made by the Committee for Elections, Appointments and Administration.

Jandrokovic today insisted that the matter did not fall within the remit of the Committee on the Constitution.

“Who is responsible is a demanding question. I will let legal experts have the final say,” said Jandrokovic.

On 31 May, the Conflict of Interest Commission could not decide whether PM Plenkovic had been in a conflict of interest in an affair called Hotmail because the day before he requested Novakovic’s exemption, saying that she was in a conflict of interest because she had been an employee of the Croatian Employers Association (HUP), which had also been financed by Ivica Todoric, former owner of the Agrokor company.

The Hotmail affair concerns members of a mailing group involved in drafting the so-called Lex Agrokor bill, some of whom later became consultants in the restructuring of that indebted food and retail conglomerate.