Croatia's Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Radimir Cacic has reiterated that being the second biggest shareholder in INA, the Croatian government sees the successful performance of this oil and gas company as one of its priorities.
"The government's task is to ensure, through its powers as the second biggest stakeholder, the successful functioning of INA," Cacic said on Thursday when he was asked by reporters to comment on the request by Croatian members sitting on INA's management board that the current board chairman, Zoltan Aldott, should resign.
"The problems are serious and the problems are objective, but we will definitely not solve them through television," Cacic said after a water management contract-signing ceremony in the Hrvatske Vode water management company in Zagreb today.
The three disgruntled Croatian members -- Niko Dalic, Ivan Kresic and Davor Mayer -- recently asked for an emergency session of INA's management as they felt marginalised in the decision-making process. They also requested the adjustment of the management's internal documents to the Croatian Companies Act.
The emergency session was held this past Tuesday when it was decided to give back their proposals for further elaboration, according to a statement issued after the meeting by the INA public relations department.
According to media reports, board chair Aldott heatedly reacted at the meeting and the latest media reports claim that the Croatian members sought his resignation.
Earlier on Thursday, Finance Minister Slavko Linic said that the government would not agree to such an inappropriate relationship within INA, and that the Hungarian oil and gas group MOL must change its way of running the Croatian company.
"We want to change the agreement and want to apply the Companies Act to INA as well, because there is no reason for something like this to be happening. We will not accept this kind of relationship within INA because it is inappropriate and unacceptable. It is a result of the work of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party and that must change," Linic told a press conference in the Parliament building.
He said it was true that MOL could run INA without the Croatian government, but in that case "they are starting a war against the Croatian state."
MOL holds 49.1% of INA shares, while the Croatian government owns 44.84%.
