Croatian yards protest EU reforms

Thousands of employees in Croatia’s ailing shipyard industry protested yesterday against privatisation plans that are part of reforms required by the European Union. “We are sending a message that we do not give up our demands … keeping shipbuilding active should be the main criteria in a tender, ” Juraj Soljic, a trade union official, told some 2,000 employees who gathered at the “3 May” shipyard in the northern port of Rijeka.

International tenders for the sale of the shipyards are expected to be called in January.

The unions are unhappy about Croatian talks with the EU on the sector’s restructuring, demanding that government ensure shipyards are not converted into other business activities and maintain a 25% stake.

Of the country’s five large state-owned shipyards, which employ around 11,500 people, only Uljanik in the northern Adriatic town of Pula is solvent. Experts warn their production capacities, programmes and products have to be modernised, highlighting technological inferiority compared with global rivals, low productivity, overstaffing and outdated management.

Shipbuilding accounts for around 15% of Croatia’s exports. The industry currently enjoys a government subsidy equal to 10% of the cost of each new ship that is ordered, support that it will have to do without if Zagreb wishes to join the EU. Croatia, which opened EU membership talks in 2005, hopes to become the bloc’s 28th member by 2011.