He was responding to a question from Frano Matusic of the opposition HDZ about the harmful impact of building hydro-electric power plants in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Also during Question Time, Finance Minister Slavko Linic said the government planned for next year the taxation of real estate by value instead of by square metre, with the exception of land, which would be taxed by square metre.
Linic said the real estate tax to be imposed next year would go into the revenues of local self-government units, and that local rates and the tax on holiday houses would be abolished.
He said those taxes were a huge problem because their revenues were not earmarked for specific purposes.
War Veterans Minister Predrag Matic said his ministry had met the technical requirements for publishing the Homeland War Veterans Register, which would be done by the end of the year.
Administration Minister Arsen Bauk said salaries in all state institutions had been audited and that the government would adopt a decision to equalise the pay rate for the same jobs by the end of the year, thereby cutting costs by about HRK 100 million annually.
(EUR 1 = HRK 7.4)