Croatia signs Green Deal with Austria

Croatian Minister of Agriculture Petar Cobankovic and his Austrian counterpart Nikolaus Berlakovich pledged cooperation in areas such as agriculture, the food industry, rural development and food safety.

Berlakovich said Austria was ready to assist Croatia with experiences it had with agricultural subsidies, helping rural areas comply with European Union environmental protection measures, "green entrepreneurship" focusing on renewable energy, eco-friendly tourism models and others.

Cobankovic said the memorandum was an additional step to further improvement of cooperation between the two states which would open new possibilities, daily Vecernji List writes.
Cobankovic said Croatia’s goal was to increase the competitiveness of its agricultural production and further develop rural areas, as well as expand environmentally sound agriculture of which Austria was a leader in the EU.

By 2016 Croatia expects to have increased the environmentally-sound agricultural land from the present 2.3 to eight per cent of the total available surface, he said.