We do not comment on various statements and events relating to shipyard privatisation. We can repeat our earlier statements that under the provisions of the Accession Treaty the issue of shipyard restructuring needs to be settled soon. The shipyard restructuring is the subject of monitoring and the Commission expects Croatia to continue meeting the obligations it assumed in accession negotiations, Peter Stano, spokesman for Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, told Hina when asked for a comment.
Koncar said in a Croatian Television (HTV) prime-time evening news programme on Thursday that the Rijeka shipyard was no longer included in their latest bid for the purchase of the shipyards, which his company Jadranska Ulaganja had submitted to the government earlier on Thursday.
In Chapter 8 (Competition Policy) of the accession negotiations, Croatia undertook to restructure its ailing shipyards, and this commitment is also recorded in the EU accession treaty.
Under a protocol attached to the accession treaty, the Commission may ask Croatia to order the shipyards to pay back all the restructuring aid they have received since March 2006 unless agreements on the privatisation of the shipyards are signed by the date of the country's accession to the EU, which is scheduled for July 1, 2013.