Croatia's government is about to pass a decree on Monday capping fuel prices, Economy Minister, Tomislav Coric, said, adding that a full set of measures designed to alleviate the impact of rising gas and electricity prices would be presented by late February.

“The government will respond… today,” Coric said when asked by reporters if a decree to cap fuel prices was under consideration, since prices of fuel are again very high. In mid-October the government capped retail fuel prices, which was lifted on 7 December.

Coric repeated that the “current drastic rise in gas prices had not been expected by anyone,” when asked by reporters about the rise in gas prices.

The government’s central bureau for public procurement is responsible for buying natural gas at a number of state institutions. Coric said that the office would get extra funding from the budget to cover rising costs of gas.

“As for the Central State Office for Public Procurement, which buys gas for an entire set of budget users, the additional cost will be covered with funds from the state budget,” he said, adding that the original amount earmarked for that purpose, totaling some 187 million kuna (€24.8m) without VAT, would increase by an additional 55-56 million kuna (€7.4m) in January.

Government to seek review of the INA-MOL decision before the Swiss Federal Supreme Court

Coric also said that the government would launch a review of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) arbitration decision of December 2016 in the INA-MOL case before the Swiss Federal Supreme Court “on time.” The deadline to do so is 8 February.

Asked about claims by Damir Vandjelic, former head of the Zagreb Reconstruction Fund and former chair of the INA Supervisory Board, who told media that “all Croatian governments so far had acted to the detriment of INA,” Coric said that he had cooperated well with Vandjelic at the time he chaired INA’s Supervisory Board but that “his latest statements seemed to show he was considering a political career.”

Asked why the government had never made any formal offer to buy back MOL’s share in INA, Coric said that “an offer had been made but that agreement had evidently not been reached on the price.” No offer was ever made public.

Late last year the Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, said that the government would halt (the apparently secret) talks on buying back MOL’s stake in INA “until the completion of a review of the 2016 UNCITRAL arbitration ruling.” When asked if the reason for suspending the talks was arbitration, or the failure to reach an agreement, Coric said that agreement had not been reached on the price.

“The talks on buying back MOL’s stake in INA were suspended due to new circumstances arising from a Croatian Supreme Court decision upholding a verdict against former prime minister Ivo Sander, convicted for taking bribes from MOL CEO Zsolt Hernady,” state agency Hina explained. The court’s decision was made public in October 2021.

“The Economy Ministry was entrusted with launching a review of the 2016 arbitration ruling before the Swiss Federal Supreme Court with the aim of determining the nullity of changes to an INA shareholders agreement and a contract on the gas business of January 2009. The government said at the time that the ministry would also continue with activities in the arbitration proceedings launched by MOL in 2014 before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID),” Hina informed the public.