Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic commented on the situation in the INA oil and gas company on Friday, saying that his government could do a lot in efforts to improve that situation, but they could not and would not use a statist approach in running companies listed on the stock exchange.
"Problems with INA will not be dealt with in public, whoever may instigate them, I'm against that, be they Croatian or any other members of INA's management board," Milanovic said in an interview with the Croatian public television network HTV while in New York.
He said that making a distinction between the Croatian and the Hungarian members of the board was bad and that the board members were people working for the company's owners and founders.
Noting that he was also speaking as a representative of the owner, given that the Croatian government owns a stake in INA, the prime minister announced that this autumn steps would be taken to ensure that INA's stocks were "more expensive and not cheaper."
Milanovic said that recent statements by Croatian members of the board could not be justified from the point of view of public interest. He added that Croatia wanted INA to be "a strong, powerful, productive and profitable company, and that's the only thing that makes sense."
