Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday the government would present a set of measures to buffer the energy price hikes in the middle of next week.

“In the past period we closely analysed energy price trends, we are following what other countries are doing and have prepared a comprehensive set of measures,” he said at a cabinet session.

Plenkovic said the measures would be “strong and abundant” to cushion the blow to living standards and that enterprises and farmers would be taken into account, too.

The measures will “refer to expanding the scope and increasing social transfers to the most vulnerable groups, social institutions and pensioners,” he said.

Besides, he added, “the measures will go towards making the rise in electricity and gas prices which, unfortunately, can’t be totally contained, as low as possible.”

The state-owned power provider HEP will play a significant role in that, Plenkovic said, adding that the measures include “elements of tax relief.”

He said that unlike other EU citizens, Croatians did not feel the rise in energy prices in the past period. “For example, the price of electricity in the European Union at the end of last year increased by 30% on average and that of gas by even more than 70%, which has not been the case in Croatia.”