President Milanović: Croatian ships built in our shipyards must sail the Croatian sea, not used foreign ships

“Who is to blame for the tragedy in which three people perished, let it be established. And who will or will not bear political responsibility, I will not talk about that now. However, the fact is that the last four ships for Jadrolinija were built more than a decade ago and were built in ‘Uljanik’. We need our ships to be built in our shipyards, not used foreign ships, especially not that. Not even new foreign ships! I say this aware of the risk that someone will accuse me of protectionism, but my job, for which I was elected, is to safeguard Croatian interests. Croatian ships must sail in the Croatian sea because it is in our interest and because we can do it, we have not lost that know-how and those skills, we have preserved them”, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović stated on Friday in Stari Grad on Hvar, commenting on the maritime accident in Mali Lošinj, where three sailors perished.

President Milanović attended the special session of the Municipal Council of Stari Grad on the occasion of Municipal Day and the feast of St. Roch, and called on to protect what is ours and to preserve the maritime tradition of Croatia which no other Slavic people have but the Croats. In his speech he recalled the significance of the sea for Croatia, as well as the tradition of building ships in Croatian shipyards.

“We bought ships and trains that were built in Croatia, regardless of the fact that we are in the European Union. When we were buying trains, 45 trains were bought in ‘Končar’, when we were building ships for the Croatian army, some foreign companies applied for the tender, but they didn’t get the job because we decided that way”, said the President, saying that we respected the rules of the European Union.

Likewise, we must be aware that when we receive money from Europe, the funds that will be with us for some time, not so long, we should take every euro because we made concessions for that, President Milanović added. “We completely opened our country, our borders. Anyone can sell what they want, to whom and as much as they want, and the state and its instruments serve to preserve what we are – preserving our sovereignty while preserving our interests. When we receive from the European Union, we must know that we give as much, if not more, and one of the dangers is that we lose the know-how and the skills we had”, said President Milanović, pointing out that Croatia must produce everything it can produce because “this level of dependence on tourism is not good, it exposes, you become more vulnerable”.

Addressing the special session apart from President Milanović was the president of the Municipal Council of Stari Grad  Teo Bratanić, the mayor of Stari Grad Antonio Škarpa and the Minister of Health and delegate of the Prime Minister Vili Beroš.

Alongside President Milanović was the Head of the Cabinet of the President Bartol Šimunić and the Adviser to the President for Education Jadranka Žarković.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Tomislav Bušljeta