The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Croatia To Start Shipbuilding Privatization
| 30 November -1 |
Restructuring the shipyards was a key condition for Croatia to be allowed to open talks on the "competition policy", one of the toughest negotiating areas in EU accession.
Croatia opened entry talks in 2005 and has been negotiating the fate of its indebted shipyards for several years.
Only one shipyard, the Uljanik dock in the northern port of Pula, is profitable. The others are kept afloat by sizable state subsidies, which the EU deems inappropriate. Croatian shipbuilding has around 1.5 per cent of the global market and around 15 per cent of Croatia’s exports.
Six Croatian shipyards directly employ some 15,000 people, and their restructuring a very sensitive social issue.
Under pressure from the EU, each shipyard submitted restructuring plans to the government in April. In mid-June, Croatia and the EU struck a deal regarding the privatization of the shipyards.
The government plans to sell Uljanik under a separate model: 25 per cent of shares will be offered to employees, while 59 per cent of shares will be sold at their nominal value.
