The ministry of finance on Tuesday dismissed the accusations made by the Franak association about the authorities having betrayed Croatian consumers.

Over the past few years, the government has continued, both on its own and in cooperation with the State Attorney’s Office (DORH), to dismiss all attempts aimed at the questioning of the constitutionality of so-called laws on the conversion of CHF-pegged loans and of their adjustment with the EU acquis, the ministry said in a press release.

First and foremost, this government is committed to protecting consumers and to this end, it has provided arguments proving that the above-mentioned laws are in line with the Croatian Constitution and also in accordance with the EU acquis communitaire, which was conducive to efforts to keep those laws in effect, with an emphasis on their being adopted to redress imbalances in the rights and responsibilities of the parties to the relevant contracts, said the ministry.

The ministry states that after the Court of the European Union delegated rulings on the consumers’ rights to national courts and given that several relevant trials are ongoing in Croatia, the government will refrain from any further comment that can amount to interference in those processes for the time being.