The government has proposed that parliament dismiss an interpellation on its work in connection with the Krs-Padjene wind park project which was submitted by the Homeland Movement caucus and other opposition MPs.

Due to suspicion of wrongdoing, the Homeland Movement asked the government to submit to parliament all contracts and decisions concerning the project as well as all relevant decisions by the Energy and Environment Ministry, the Croatian Energy Regulatory Agency (HERA) and the Croatian Energy Market Regulator (HROTE).

Elaborating the government’s proposal at a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Economy Minister Tomislav Coric said the project was launched in 2003 by Austrian investors and taken over by the CEMP energy company in 2012, adding that institutions and ministries under a number of governments had worked on it.

He said CEMP and HROTE signed agreements on the purchase of electricity for a 14-year period on December 30 and 31, 2013, and that under a tariff system in force as of 1 January 2014, the incentive price was reduced from HRK 0.71 to 0.53 per KWh.

Coric said that on 30 December 2019, 23 March 2020 and 18 May 2020 HERA adopted decisions granting the Padjene wind park the status of preferential electricity producer and establishing that CEMP had met all the requirements under the law on renewables and high-efficiency cogeneration.

Coric dismissed as incorrect the interpellation’s claims that the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development granted CEMP a soft loan so that it could realise the project. He said the bank was one of the creditors, that it approved an amount representing approximately 34% of the total investment, and that the loan was approved at a higher interest.

He said all ministry decisions on the project from 2017 were adopted after consultation with the State Attorney’s Office and that they were upheld in court in April 2019.

Speaking to the press afterwards, Coric said the interpellation would not pass as the opposition did not have one valid argument for it.

As for an opposition request that he be sacked, Coric said he did not think he was harming the government’s reputation. “If I thought I did, I wouldn’t be here today,” he said, confident that the prime minister would let him know if he was harming the government’s work.