ZAGREB, July 10 (Hina) - The Croatian Power Industry (HEP) is ready to continue negotiations with a U.S. company, Enron, on signing a treaty on the construction of the Jertovec thermal power plant outside Zagreb, in line to the
Houston Protocol, announced HEP spokesman, Mihovil Bogoslav Matkovic, on Monday. Matkovic told Hina that since the signing of the Houston Protocol, HEP representatives had conducted intensive talks with Enron, in the past 30 days.
ZAGREB, July 10 (Hina) - The Croatian Power Industry (HEP) is ready
to continue negotiations with a U.S. company, Enron, on signing a
treaty on the construction of the Jertovec thermal power plant
outside Zagreb, in line to the Houston Protocol, announced HEP
spokesman, Mihovil Bogoslav Matkovic, on Monday.
Matkovic told Hina that since the signing of the Houston Protocol,
HEP representatives had conducted intensive talks with Enron, in
the past 30 days.#L#
Unfortunately, agreement has not been reached, owing to excessive
demands of Enron, which are "unacceptable for the HEP and
unjustified in business terms," the HEP spokesman said.
Another deadline for the signing the contracts has not been
established yet and the Croatian Power Industry at the moment has no
information on Enron's stand on resuming the negotiations, he
added.
On June 9 in Houston, Croatian Government officials and Enron
representatives signed a protocol on amendments to the contract on
the construction of the Jertovec thermal power plan.
The changed contract on the construction and usage of that plant
should have been signed within 30 days after the Protocol was
signed. During those 30 days Croatian and American experts were to
prepare a harmonised text. The deadline expired at midnight July
9.
According to statements that Croatian negotiators gave upon their
return from Houston, of two contracts which HEP and Enron had signed
in 1999, one contract - on the construction of the Jertovec power
plant - should be cancelled according to the conclusions of the
Houston talks, while another contract - on the delivery and sale of
power supplies to the HEP should be changed.
The negotiators in Houston agreed that Enron retain the right to
building a thermal power plant in Croatia but it should be done in
line to a new concept of the open market, at a site either of
Jertovec or Osijek.
Croatia's First Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic on Monday stated
that the Government backed HEP negotiators.
(hina) jn ms