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00:00:00Moody's confirmed Croatia's credit rating at A3
00:00:03and maintained stable outlook, highlighting the quality
00:00:06of institutions, responsible fiscal policy and continued
00:00:10economic growth. What exact reforms is Croatia implementing?
00:00:14The guest of the new day is Zvonimir Savić, Prime Minister Plenković's advisor for
00:00:17economy.
00:00:20The scandal in Germany is growing, how did August Hening, the man
00:00:24who spent seven years at the head of Germany's most important
00:00:27intelligence service BND, where he... had
00:00:30these funds can continue access to the most strictly guarded state secrets, Srećko
00:00:34Germany for a new day. Matić speaks live from
00:00:36Matić.
00:00:39Public consultation on anchor prices begins, which activities
00:00:43will be excluded from the obligation to publish them. Minister
00:00:47of Economy Šušnjar said that nothing is set in
00:00:50stone. We are following the development
00:00:52of events.
00:00:55American President Trump suddenly announced that a ceasefire on energy
00:00:58infrastructure between Ukraine and Russia has been agreed upon, but there are
00:01:01no official confirmations from Kiev and Moscow. Ukrainian President Zelensky
00:01:05caught off guard, we are live in Kiev.
00:01:30representative break.
00:03:55Good morning and welcome once again to New Day. Prime Minister Andrej
00:03:58Plenković presented the planned budget rebalance at Friday's government
00:04:02session, which increases expenditures by
00:04:04745 million to a total of
00:04:0740.6 billion euros. Additional funds will be
00:04:11directed to pensions, social measures, healthcare, education, and
00:04:14the energy assistance package for citizens. Plenković emphasized
00:04:18that the budget deficit should remain at 2.9%
00:04:22of GDP. He announced that Croatia's GDP this year
00:04:25should exceed 100 billion
00:04:28euros for the first time.
00:04:31"The key message of this rebalance is
00:04:34that in circumstances of various pressures,
00:04:37uncertainties, external shocks, we
00:04:39continue to protect the standard of citizens, invest in development
00:04:43and security, and at the same time maintain
00:04:46stable public finances with
00:04:50responsible policy of their
00:04:52management,
00:04:56what we certainly have the opportunity to emphasize is the fact that..." economic
00:05:00activity this year 2026 in
00:05:03Croatia will be significantly higher than the European Union average. You had
00:05:06the opportunity to see, uh, according to reports in the first, first
00:05:10half, the first two quarters, that this lady. economic activity was on average
00:05:141.9% higher compared to the same period last year,
00:05:17however, we believe that the third and fourth quarters will bring its acceleration
00:05:21and uh crossing the 2% mark in any
00:05:24case.
00:05:28We heard, therefore, messages from the last government session, and over the weekend
00:05:31another confirmation of Croatia's high credit rating from Moody's
00:05:35with a stable outlook came. But
00:05:39we'll talk about that and everything that led to
00:05:43such an assessment and the general state of the Croatian economy with our first
00:05:46guest this morning, Mr. Zvonimir Savić, Prime Minister
00:05:50Plenković's advisor for economy. Good morning and welcome to our program.
00:05:53Good morning to you and everyone watching us. Let's start with
00:05:57this news that arrived, if I'm not mistaken, on
00:06:00Saturday, uh, Moody's, another
00:06:03confirmation, stable credit rating. Uh, that's
00:06:06right. Usually, rating agencies, in this case Moody's, one of the three largest
00:06:10in the world, at the end of the week, on Fridays and Saturdays, publish
00:06:13either rating changes or other information
00:06:17regularly. Thus, for Croatia, this news arrived that Croatia's very
00:06:20high rating of
00:06:23A3 with stable outlook was confirmed, which in
00:06:26translation actually means that Croatia is perceived as
00:06:30a stable country with relatively low risk, i.e., low
00:06:33risk for debt repayment.
00:06:36This is very good, very good news, because it actually confirms
00:06:40everything we've done so far, everything the government has done so far.
00:06:43What is important to emphasize to our viewers is that Moody's, one of
00:06:47the three leading agencies in the world that assign ratings,
00:06:51has been doing so for a hundred years and is completely independent in its
00:06:55assessments. What is good is that they highlight some things
00:06:58that are good for Croatia, because otherwise it wouldn't have such a good, such a good
00:07:02rating. They emphasize three things, you also
00:07:06touched on some of them, so the first
00:07:09important thing they assess our institutions, i.e., Croatian
00:07:13institutions as highly efficient, which is
00:07:16best reflected in the implementation of our national recovery and
00:07:18resilience plan, secondly a stable, i.e., solid
00:07:22fiscal position, i.e., maintaining
00:07:25the budget deficit below 3% of GDP
00:07:28and a decrease in the share of public debt in GDP, and
00:07:31the third thing is strong economic growth, i.e., the
00:07:35movement of our GDP which for several
00:07:38years in a row has been practically twice as fast as
00:07:41the average. growth of the European Union and two to three
00:07:45times faster than the average growth of the Eurozone,
00:07:48such a, such a tendency will continue, so we
00:07:51believe that in the foreseeable future, not only will this high, high
00:07:55rating be maintained, but over time it will
00:07:58be increased, what exactly does this rating mean
00:08:01for the citizens of the Republic of Croatia in
00:08:05the context of financing and refinancing state
00:08:08obligations? Yes, that's a very good question, what I would also like to
00:08:11say about the rating is the trend of Croatia's rating in this case the Moody's agency
00:08:15and this maintaining of a high level, I would first like to point out that
00:08:18Croatia since the corona virus pandemic, i.e. since February
00:08:222020, has even increased its credit rating by five
00:08:26levels, why am I saying this, because in that period,
00:08:29i.e. from February 2020 until today,
00:08:33only 37 countries in the world recorded any rating growth,
00:08:37only 11 European Union countries recorded
00:08:40rating growth at all in that time.
00:08:42And Croatia is only one of two countries in the world
00:08:46that has recorded a growth of five levels in those five years.
00:08:49It is also important to say that Croatia with this
00:08:53rating we now have is in a situation where 11
00:08:56European Union countries have the same or lower rating than
00:08:59we do. And what does that bring to citizens? It brings the following:
00:09:03The rating is a perception of the stability
00:09:06of the state to repay debt. If the perception is better, the risk of debt repayment
00:09:09and the probability of default is much lower. This actually means lower
00:09:13interest rates, lower borrowing. Croatian, uh, when
00:09:17you look at the market, Croatian ten-year bonds
00:09:20have a so-called spread, uh,
00:09:24compared to other European Union countries, it's quite good,
00:09:27so one Poland borrows more expensively than us, Romania, Bulgaria,
00:09:31Hungary, uh, borrows more expensively than us,
00:09:34Slovenia slightly more favorably, we are exactly at the same level as
00:09:38France, what does that mean for our citizens, first, the state. borrows
00:09:41more favorably, i.e., cheaper, that means in the future a smaller amount
00:09:45of funds must be allocated to debt repayment, a larger amount
00:09:48of interest, which actually spills over into a more favorable situation in
00:09:52the budget, savings of certain funds, so that the state can finance
00:09:55other needs that are important to all of us and important to all of us, so more
00:09:58money remains for our needs, mm, what does that, on the other
00:10:02hand, mean as a signal to foreign investors, so when a state has
00:10:06a rating like Croatia has, is that
00:10:10a signal? to foreign investors to rush
00:10:13into such a state, of course, there is a good investment climate and how
00:10:16Croatia stands in terms of direct foreign investments, so-called FDIs,
00:10:20yes, Croatia is doing well there, so you have already given. part of the answer,
00:10:24so the perception of risk is low, which means that investors who seek
00:10:28security and stability for their investments, especially in these
00:10:31times of uh geopolitical instability, actually
00:10:35direct their funds to countries that are safer. It is true that this brings lower
00:10:38returns, but in these times it is important for investors
00:10:41to achieve returns. Croatia is doing well here, as an
00:10:45example, the cost of borrowing
00:10:48uh compared to Germany, why Germany, Germany has benchmark bonds on
00:10:51the market before... two years ago
00:10:55the difference between the price of Croatian borrowing and German
00:10:58borrowing was approximately 1.2% in basis points,
00:11:01three years ago it was 1.9% in basis points,
00:11:04now currently on the market that difference is 0.4, that
00:11:07means that Croatia is perceived safely, and this credit
00:11:11rating which has been confirmed by Moody's, by
00:11:14definition it is above average quality
00:11:17rating and low risk, so according to their
00:11:21definitions with stable outlook. What I would like to emphasize,
00:11:24Moody's is not the only credit rating agency,
00:11:28Standard & Poor's and Fitch, so the other two, also keep
00:11:31Croatia roughly at that, roughly at that level, so in that
00:11:35context, and you see when Croatia borrows on international markets,
00:11:38all our issues are actually consumed, fully bought, that
00:11:42is also proof of the perception of foreign investors, and
00:11:46also every time the state issued securities and
00:11:50the public and population bought them, the interest was always much
00:11:53higher than the need, which also confirms
00:11:57what Moody's stated, that is
00:12:00the efficiency and stability of institutions, that Croatian
00:12:04institutions, which are actually all of us, you and I,
00:12:07everyone who watches, people work somewhere in those institutions, such a
00:12:11good perception and the result of that is more favorable borrowing, and as I said
00:12:15later, it spills over into greater available
00:12:18budget funds to finance some of our public needs, does that lead
00:12:22to foreign investors entering Croatia, not only through
00:12:26the financing of state bonds and through
00:12:28state finances, but truly in the sense of, therefore,
00:12:32how direct public, sorry, direct foreign investments are usually perceived,
00:12:35i.e., I don't know, some investor comes and builds
00:12:39a factory and employs 200, 300, 500 people, is that
00:12:42directly causally, consequentially linked? It is partly linked, so
00:12:46such rating agencies, their reports and the monitoring of a given
00:12:49country are taken into account by foreign investors, so.
00:12:53it is important for them, among other things, to have predictability of some
00:12:56policies that the government and state implement and tax policies and
00:13:00policies for investors, in such a way they get information
00:13:04about the safety and stability of the country, of course, that is not the only decision, of course,
00:13:07investors also look at traffic connectivity, location
00:13:11of a certain country, transport costs, they look, in
00:13:14the end, at the potential of the population, so in which area they will
00:13:17invest, but this is an important element because in many investments,
00:13:21especially large ones, it is... to some extent a decisive element, if
00:13:25a country has a certain level of risk, some
00:13:28investments, some companies, some activities will not even
00:13:31come to that country, will not even consider that, no, they don't consider it. Similarly, when
00:13:35investing, for example, at a certain rating level, there are
00:13:38investors or central banks that do not invest in
00:13:42the securities of a country that is below a certain rating
00:13:45level, especially if that country has a non-investment rating.
00:13:48We were on a non-investment rating a few years ago, but
00:13:52the current one. actually, I repeat, it increases
00:13:56the uh fund or space for investors who want to invest and
00:13:59develop in Croatia.
00:14:03Let's move on to what you said was partly the reason for
00:14:07this credit rating, among other things, that is the national
00:14:10program of uh recovery and resilience, that is, the implementation
00:14:13of reforms related to
00:14:16NPO. How is Croatia doing there, where is Croatia in relation to
00:14:19other EU countries? Yes, this is a good question for comparison, because it's always good
00:14:23to see how we stand among others. So, very briefly, our national recovery
00:14:27and resilience plan, that's a mechanism from
00:14:30the European Union from which we use funds just like any
00:14:34other European Union country. This is a consequence of
00:14:38the coronavirus crisis, and countries were given certain funds
00:14:41to invest in public investments to prevent
00:14:45future crises or mitigate them, or to make the country more resilient.
00:14:49In this context, Croatia has 10 billion
00:14:51euros available. So far, if you look at the last few years,
00:14:55Croatia has always been among the top three EU countries in implementation, so
00:14:59I'm not saying that, nor is the government, the European Commission says
00:15:03it. This means, in translation, that in order for Croatia to be able to use those 10
00:15:07billion euros, it must implement certain reforms across
00:15:10the entire spectrum of policies
00:15:12and implement investments. So far, Croatia
00:15:16has received 7.3 billion euros in payments
00:15:19from these 10.10 billion euros in eight
00:15:22installments based on the implementation of all,
00:15:26I repeat, all 100% of reforms and 100%
00:15:29of investments, which are the basis for us to receive these 7.3
00:15:32billion euros so far. Compared to other
00:15:35countries, Croatia is doing very well. As I already mentioned, Croatia has received eight
00:15:39installments of these 7.3 billion euro payments, and Croatia is
00:15:43the only EU country that has received 100% of the first eight installments
00:15:47requested from Brussels for payment, which is actually
00:15:50a motivation for the government, and ultimately for the ministries that
00:15:53implement it, because the funds come to Croatia, and investments are implemented
00:15:57that are related to education,
00:16:00healthcare, energy, infrastructure, this is
00:16:04a great added value so that
00:16:07to be drawn, and the implementation
00:16:11of reforms is important. Moody's in its
00:16:13report confirmed the following, that Croatia has successfully implemented
00:16:17all reforms in the last few years and at an intensity that is higher than
00:16:20expected. This is actually somewhat encouraging, not only for the government,
00:16:23but actually for the institutions that implement all of this.
00:16:27Reforms have been implemented in the healthcare
00:16:31sector, in the education sector. I would highlight the education
00:16:34and science sector as the most important, because
00:16:38a reform related to adaptation for single-shift,
00:16:41i.e., all-day schooling, is being implemented. That is a huge reform, it is something that has not been seen for the last
00:16:45over 100 years, so that our entire system is reoriented and
00:16:49adapted so that our children in elementary school can have classes in
00:16:53one shift and all day. So, in order for
00:16:56that to be achieved, i.e., that reform, it is necessary, of course,
00:16:59to invest in facilities, currently contracts have been signed for
00:17:03approximately 1900 classrooms in Croatia that must be
00:17:06... either built or renovated or equipped,
00:17:10and also the reforms were related
00:17:12to uh to the system of education and upbringing
00:17:16in kindergartens, for example, so many kindergartens have been built
00:17:20to increase the number of places, i.e., capacities by
00:17:2321,000, we have reforms related to
00:17:26entrepreneurship, Croatia has implemented four action plans
00:17:30in which it reduced parafiscal and administrative
00:17:33charges, there are exactly 493 measures
00:17:37which are... targeted with uh with an amount
00:17:40of reduction, a total reduction of burdens, I repeat
00:17:43administrative and parafiscal by approximately 600 million
00:17:46euros annually for entrepreneurship, these are some examples, Croatia has
00:17:50successfully done that, that is actually a goal we want to achieve, which is to
00:17:54continue this recovery and resilience plan to the end, ultimately
00:17:57for Croatia to consume all the available amount.
00:18:01How important is it in such reforms, like this one on
00:18:04education that you just mentioned as an example. It is important and possible
00:18:08to take into account a kind of balance between hardware
00:18:12and software, so hardware on one side, let's colloquially call it
00:18:15schools, classrooms, equipping classrooms,
00:18:18uh, enabling capacities for conducting single-shift
00:18:22classes, on the other hand software would probably be people,
00:18:25i.e. teachers, professors, their working conditions, their
00:18:29salaries, uh, their level of education, curriculum quality and so
00:18:32on and so forth, do both enter the national
00:18:36program in... the reforms you are talking about or are they
00:18:40primarily focused on hardware? Good that you asked, it does, it does
00:18:43that, so it does in several ways, first how much it
00:18:46must, must be prepared, i.e., adapted, adapted so that
00:18:50our children can even be in single-shift classes, look now on average, our
00:18:54children in elementary school go home around 12 o'clock, what happens
00:18:57in the afternoon, either they engage in tutoring, children are free,
00:19:01they have nothing to do, parents are worried, so the goal is for children to be in
00:19:05school longer, have a few extra hours. during which, among other things, they would
00:19:09write homework, sports and school activities would increase, that's
00:19:12one thing and the other thing, the reform covers,
00:19:16i.e., a new pay model in public administration has already been implemented, so
00:19:20the new pay model also covers education,
00:19:24salaries have significantly increased, so in that way and ultimately
00:19:27motivates teachers and educators who do this,
00:19:31all with the aim that our children, as time goes on and
00:19:34due to better working conditions for both teachers and children.
00:19:38by increasing the number of hours spent in the education
00:19:40system, we reach a situation where we start to improve in
00:19:44terms of, i.e., in the ranking of PISA tests, so we do everything in
00:19:48such a way that this is not unknown in
00:19:51the world, what created a problem for us and why we even decided
00:19:55on such a mechanism of all-day
00:19:58schooling, the reason is simple, our children in elementary school
00:20:01spend approximately 50% less time
00:20:04in the education system than the European Union average,
00:20:08that is something we don't want, so we want to prepare our children
00:20:12for growth and for continuing education, and ultimately
00:20:15to be ready for the labor market, uh,
00:20:19critics when talking about the reform program, the national program, and
00:20:22the implementation of reforms say, a significant part of these reforms is being implemented
00:20:26"on paper", so to speak, laws are being passed, regulations are being passed,
00:20:30something is being organized at the level of bureaucracy, administration,
00:20:34but actually tangible concrete changes on the ground are not
00:20:37happening or are not happening enough, and healthcare is often
00:20:41taken as an example, there are still large debts to
00:20:44wholesalers, pharmacies, waiting
00:20:47lists, money draining from the system on all sides, are these criticisms
00:20:50justified, how much does the national recovery
00:20:54and resilience program, i.e., the reforms being implemented
00:20:57concretely change the situation on the ground? If the criticisms are
00:21:00directed at the implementation of reforms that were defined in the recovery
00:21:04and resilience plan, which was defined back in 2020-
00:21:072021, they absolutely and completely do not stand, I don't
00:21:11have to say that, let them just look at the European Commission's report,
00:21:14because Croatia has committed to implementing
00:21:1878 reforms at some intensity, I know that
00:21:21the reform fund cannot cover absolutely everything that our country
00:21:24needs, however the level of reform was
00:21:28incredibly ambitious, again I'm not saying that, the reports of the European
00:21:32Court of Auditors say that, which a couple of years ago conducted an
00:21:35analysis of our recovery plan and the plans of other countries,
00:21:39they found that Croatia has largely covered
00:21:42the necessary and needed reforms. The 78
00:21:46reforms listed in the recovery and resilience plan
00:21:50have been fulfilled according to the Commission's assessment. Based on that, we also received funds
00:21:54from the recovery plan, 100% fulfillment,
00:21:57among other things, waiting lists were covered, so at the beginning
00:22:01we realized that one of the problems in healthcare, I repeat one of, so
00:22:05the recovery plan we detected things that we must
00:22:09solve that are important, for example, waiting lists, I know because I personally looked at it and
00:22:12followed it, we established a certain fund, i.e., a certain
00:22:16number of average days for
00:22:19a particular type of examination. We had to wait, we defined
00:22:23the number of days and then the entire system adapted to that, so
00:22:26the Ministry of Health, like a wave in
00:22:30hospitals, you might remember, a year or two ago, there were many reports from hospitals
00:22:33that organized and reorganized, they worked
00:22:37on Saturdays, directors of some hospitals were on your TV from
00:22:40the north of Croatia to the south, where
00:22:43by increasing the number of hours or additional engagement, and
00:22:46telemedicine, they influenced the reduction of the number of
00:22:50days of waiting for certain diagnostic
00:22:53examinations, that's number one, because a lot is related to actually
00:22:56reorganizing work, and number two, where
00:23:00equipment or devices were missing, we financed
00:23:04and purchased them. For example, in Croatia,
00:23:07over 20 linear accelerators were purchased, so
00:23:10quite expensive diagnostic equipment for six, i.e.,
00:23:13seven hospitals in Croatia, so from Zagreb to
00:23:17Zadar, where in such a way, so... with this expensive diagnostic
00:23:21equipment, the goal was to reduce the number of days in diagnostic
00:23:25examinations for the most seriously ill patients, that's just one, just one example, I know that
00:23:29there are a whole series of reforms that still need to be implemented, but I repeat, everything
00:23:32that is defined in the recovery and resilience plan, where it
00:23:36can be defined by a precise concrete figure of what has been
00:23:39done, has actually been fulfilled, which I think is very good
00:23:42and that it is somehow an obligation, if I may say so freely, to us in the government,
00:23:46and to all actors in the ministries, to continue
00:23:50at such a pace, at such a pace. What about
00:23:53the other usually the most frequently mentioned reform
00:23:56when talking about Croatian reforms in the broadest sense, that is, of course, pension
00:24:00reform, to what extent is it covered by the
00:24:03reform program and to what extent has the reform program affected that
00:24:07famous ratio, we know that Croatia at one point almost reached
00:24:10a one-to-one ratio, that is, working population and
00:24:13retired population, what is the situation here regarding pension
00:24:17reform, pension reform in many European Union countries
00:24:21was such that they didn't even want to include any
00:24:24elements of pension reform in the recovery and resilience plan, primarily
00:24:28the French, for example, we did include some measures,
00:24:31but we also decided that we couldn't put everything into the
00:24:35recovery and resilience plan, because there was no longer a need, or rather, there weren't enough
00:24:39funds from the European Union to be able to
00:24:42draw on, so we decided to do it nationally,
00:24:45nationally. This ratio you mentioned is actually a consequence of some
00:24:49past times. But also the fact that
00:24:52on average a Croatian pensioner
00:24:55retires significantly earlier than the average
00:24:59in the European Union, so the difference in our
00:25:02average pensioner's age when they retire,
00:25:05that is, for a full old-age, or
00:25:08age, age pension, is about 10 or 12 years less
00:25:11than that of some pensioners who are in Nordic countries,
00:25:15so that's something that takes a long time, a long time to
00:25:18change. Also, we are burdened by the fact that a relatively
00:25:22small percentage of pensioners are those who are
00:25:26retired either due to years of service
00:25:29they worked, or due to reaching the age
00:25:33of life, that's about 12 to 15% of pensioners, and of course, that
00:25:37creates a great burden on the pension system, however
00:25:40Croatia has long developed the second, second and third
00:25:43pillar of pension, so in that way, it tried to do something, what
00:25:47the government can do, so it's exactly the pension system,
00:25:50index, index pensions, but also
00:25:54discourage early retirement, that is,
00:25:57encouraging longer, longer service, these are some things we can
00:26:01already do. Something has been done, for example, at the
00:26:04request of the employer people can request an extension of service, if
00:26:08I can put it that way, or, say, stay for one, two or three more years after the age
00:26:12limit for retirement, of course, if both sides agree, so pension
00:26:15reform is something that is burdening
00:26:18the system now, but in the future, however, everything we can
00:26:22do legally, because I repeat, the biggest problem is that relatively
00:26:25large number of pensioners in relation to the active working
00:26:29population, uh, none of this, or at least... "a significant
00:26:32part of this would not have happened without European funds, European
00:26:36money, the NPO, and of course everything that follows
00:26:39from it, and how that
00:26:42multi-year budget will look is being defined now, the Irish
00:26:46presidency came out with a proposal a few days ago
00:26:50on Thursday, if I'm not mistaken, we have a meeting of
00:26:53the European Council where it will be on the table and where such councils usually last
00:26:57until the early hours, uh what does the Irish
00:27:00proposal bring us?" "The Irish proposal, sorry, and what does that proposal
00:27:04mean for Croatia? Well, you've already given half the answer, so exactly, the Irish were
00:27:08diligent, so they actually published it on Saturday, it's the so-called
00:27:11negotiating box, which means the Irish presidency, now it's their
00:27:15turn, the negotiating box that actually defines in more detail
00:27:19the concept of the future European budget, specifically
00:27:22with numbers, when I say numbers, that implies
00:27:26uh the European budget for the seven-year period from
00:27:292028 to 2034,
00:27:33negotiations on that multiannual financial framework, that is, the European
00:27:36Union budget, will last a little over a few months, certainly deep into
00:27:40next year, we as a country and government are already
00:27:43involved in that, of course, exactly at the end of this week there will be another
00:27:47meeting, a meeting in Brussels. The Irish
00:27:50conceived it in such a way that they
00:27:52reduced the total MFF, that is, the multiannual
00:27:56financial framework, i.e., the European Union budget compared to
00:28:00the initial proposal of the European Commission from
00:28:032025, they reduced the entire volume by about
00:28:068%, which is a significant amount,
00:28:09so it, of course, cascades down to
00:28:13all policies that are financed. What is most important to us as
00:28:17a country is the so-called regional, or
00:28:20cohesion policy and agricultural policy, these are the two most important
00:28:23things for us, I say this because Croatia from the beginning, not only
00:28:27Croatia, but exactly 16 other countries strongly
00:28:30advocated for the preservation of
00:28:32funds for cohesion, that is, for
00:28:36regional policy, i.e., for funds from which we will later, or in
00:28:39the future, receive funds from European Union funds,
00:28:43that part has also been affected by a certain, certain
00:28:46reduction, our intention, intention and goal is for that reduction
00:28:50for Croatia to be as small as possible, for now, according to
00:28:54the Irish proposal, if it is taken into account, we have to some extent
00:28:57succeeded, so we have managed, let's say, in quotation marks, to save
00:29:01it for now. In these negotiations, the amount
00:29:05allocated to Croatia is approximately, that's number one, and
00:29:08number two, due to the reduction of the total
00:29:11budget, the reduction, or the proposal for a reduction of the total
00:29:14budget by these 8% that I mentioned, it also
00:29:18proportionally reduces the contributions
00:29:22that countries should pay to the European budget, so in that
00:29:25context, compared to the initial proposals, Croatia should
00:29:28contribute somewhat less, negotiations are not over, it will take some more time.
00:29:33Our goal, and I believe that we will succeed in it, is
00:29:37to retain and increase the fund of resources allocated
00:29:41to cohesion, i.e., regional policy, so that in the future
00:29:44in this studio, whether it's me or someone else in a few months or a year, we can
00:29:48talk about the topics of how many resources Croatia has
00:29:51at its disposal, I repeat, there will be significant resources,
00:29:54we will fight for it, European funds will not run dry, it's just
00:29:58a question of the amount we will have at our disposal from
00:30:022028 onwards, then we will talk about where
00:30:06we will direct these funds, we just briefly talked about the recovery
00:30:10and resilience plan, which is an instrument that
00:30:14Croatia, as I emphasized several times earlier, not according to my
00:30:17words, but according to the commission's estimates, Croatia uses it very well
00:30:21on that wave of good use of funds that we direct to
00:30:25healthcare, to education, to
00:30:28justice, to education, ultimately
00:30:31to the reconstruction of the city of Zagreb. So energy efficiency,
00:30:34transport, for example, the new trams that run through the city of Zagreb, all of that
00:30:38is financed from the recovery and resilience plan, so that's the recovery
00:30:41and resilience plan, new buses that will run through the city of Zagreb, through
00:30:45Virovitica and other cities, all of that is financed from the recovery
00:30:48and resilience plan, i.e., European funds, and bearing in mind that
00:30:52the Croatian administration, government ministries have experience in implementing the recovery
00:30:56and resilience plan, I believe, I hope that Croatia, i.e., all of us in the end.