The Croatian parliament on Tuesday debated a motion by the Homeland Movement (DP) to request the government to submit to it all contracts related to the Krs-Padjene wind park project, with Economy Minister Tomislav Coric saying that documents showed all key decisions on the project were made in 2013.

Ahead of the debate on the motion to interpellate the government on the project, Coric said the government’s position was clear.

The government did not do anything illegal nor did it grant the investor preferential treatment, and we will prove it, Coric said.

The DP motion was supported by 20 opposition deputies, who want the government to submit to the parliament all contracts and decisions related to the Krs-Padjene wind park, claiming that it is a “major corruption case”.

Presenting the motion, DP MP Karolina Vidovic Kristo quoted calculations made by experts the party had hired. She said that over a period of 14 years Croatian consumers would pay HRK 2.2 billion more than they should under the price envisaged by the law.

She said that the reason for such a high price of power produced by wind farms was “shameless preferential treatment and corruption activities by the HNS, the SDP and the HDZ.”

Vidovic Kristo claims also that the investor, who did not have all the necessary references, was granted preferential treatment systematically.

The initial contractual amount of incentives for production by wind farms was HRK 0.78 per kilowatt-hour (KWh) and it was not reduced even though incentives dropped to below HRK 0.50 per KWh due to a decrease in production costs, as was the case in a large number of EU countries. Contrary to that, Vidovic Kristo said, harmful contracts were signed only hours before a price drop.

Vidovic Kristo claims that prosecutorial authorities and the police did not do anything about this and that the government was violating the law.

She also said that Coric could have requested the termination of the harmful contracts and reported the criminal activities but did not do so.

The MP went on to say that the Croatian Reconstruction and Development Bank (HBOR) had granted a HRK 600 million loan for the project, thus financing corruption instead of the export of Croatian products.

Vidovic Kristo maintains that this was conducted by incumbent Finance Minister Zdravko Maric and that PM Andrej Plenkovic knew about it.

She believes that apart from them, one should also call to account former minister Ivan Vrdoljak and the heads of the HERA and HROTE regulatory agencies.

Vidovic Kristo’s address drew a number of comments by ruling HDZ party deputies.

HDZ whip Branko Bacic called her speech absurd, stressing that she had mixed up the purchase and the sale price of electricity produced in wind farms and that someone had written the motion for her.

If something had been illegal about the procedure, it would already have had a legal epilogue, he said, noting that there was no need for Minister Coric to justify himself.

MP Dalija Oreskovic of the Party with a Name and Surname called that statement by Bacic pathetic.

The government proposed that the parliament reject the motion.

Coric told MPs that all decisions on the wind park project made by the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Development in 2017, which he had taken over, were adopted following consultations with the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor (DORH) and were upheld in a court of law in April 2019.

He said that the incentive for the production of electricity in wind parks was reduced from HRK 0.71 to HRK 0.53 per KWh. When asked why he did not cancel the harmful contracts, he asked “Why did not my predecessor, Minister Slaven Dobrovic, cancel them if they were harmful.”

Confirming that the HBOR had approved an €80 million loan for the Krs-Padjene wind park as support for the production of power from renewable sources, Finance Minister Zdravko Maric dismissed allegations that the loan had been granted under terms more favourable than the usual ones. He also noted that the interest rate on the loan was higher than for other projects and above the market rate.

Social Democrat MP Mirela Ahmetovic said her party group would support the DP motion, noting that Coric had made it possible for the investor to keep their privileged status and that between public interest and the interest of the investor, he chose to protect the latter.

Ahmetovic also believes that the government is afraid of the interpellation motion and that it is hiding the relevant documents.

The Krs-Padjene project was launched in 2003 by an Austrian investor and in 2012 it was taken over by the C.E.M.P. energy company. Institutions and ministries under several governments worked on the implementation of the project.

Coric: Key decisions related to project made in late 2013

Ahead of the debate on the motion to question the government about the project, Coric told reporters that key decisions on the project and a number of others were made in late 2013 during the term of the government led by Zoran Milanovic.

“The government’s position is cear, it did not do anything illegal and it did not put the investor in a more favourable position, and we will prove that,” Coric said.

“It is not true that the tariff was changed overnight, but in the period from the government decision of 31 October 2013 to the implementation of the decision on the lowering of the tariff, a total of nine wind park projects were included in this more favourable scheme of incentives,” he added.