The European Commission will not make any decision or publish any position on Croatian shipyards restructuring plans today or in the coming days, said Dirk Lange, the European Commission's chief negotiator with Croatia in the accession negotiations.
The spokeswoman for the European Enlargement Commissioner, Natasha Butler, said that they did not expect any decision today regarding any of the Croatian shipyards.
The Commission is continuing to work with the Croatian authorities on this matter. There are no timelines for final conclusions on the restructuring plans, although the Croatian Competition Agency and the Commission are doing their best to improve the plans and adjust them to state aid rules, Butler said.
A technical meeting on this matter was held in Brussels last Friday by Croatian Economy Ministry State Secretary Rudjer Friganovic and EC officials, and progress was made on that occasion, according to diplomatic sources.
The talks will continue in the coming days, the same sources said.
Butler said that the meeting was of a technical nature.
The draft plans for restructuring, which have been delivered to the Commission, are incomplete and some additional information is still needed, she added.
The issue of overhauling the state-run shipyards is of key importance for closing the negotiating chapter "Competition Policy" in Croatia's EU membership talks.
Following its agreement with the EU, Croatia has decided to restructure the yards through privatisation.