The Croatian parliament on Friday adopted amendments to the Concessions Act, aligning it with the EU concessions directive and removing the shortcomings identified by the European Commission.

The amended law, passed under a fast-track procedure by 85 votes in favour, 22 against and 13 abstentions, changed the definition of economic operator and further elaborated on the provisions on conflict of interest of persons involved in the concession award procedure and others who may influence the process.

It also specifies reasons for the elimination of economic operators from the concession award procedure and the method of reassessment of the value of the concession in the process of amending the concession agreement. Minor changes were also made to the possibility of subcontracting, in that subcontracting criteria are no longer prescribed by law but are left to be decided by the free market.

The amendments were met with fierce criticism from the opposition, who said that hiding behind the need to align national legislation with EU recommendations is a desire to liberalise the concessions system and take away power from parliamentto decide on abolishing long-term concessions that are not in the public interest.

The amendments put forward by the opposition did not receive support.

Parliament also adopted several reports, including the report on budget execution in the first half of the year, which showed a consolidated budget deficit of HRK 17.9 billion, or 4.9% of GDP.

Lawmakers ratified the agreement between the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the governments of other parties to the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Initiative for Southeastern Europe.