Employment funds to be used to fulfil an election promise?
The government has denied reports published by Croatian media that it would take away funds meant for employment policies implementation and use them to fulfil one of its major election promises. According to reports, the Croatian Employment Service (HZZ) could be unpleasantly surprised with this year's budget. Unofficial sources claim that funds appropriated for the implementation of active employment policies could be just a quarter of last year's amount. That would mean that the national sources of funds for a whole range of labour market measures would bring in a maximum of 250 million kuna. By comparison, last year the total was slightly less than 1.2 billion kuna, with slightly more than 941 million kuna secured from national sources, and about 253 million kuna withdrawn from the EU funds. The active employment policy measures included 64,760 unemployed persons, report net.hr and n1info on February 24, 2016.
If there are no major changes in the next few weeks before the presentation of the budget for this year, HZZ will receive the lowest amount of funds for active employment policies in the last five years. Reports claim that the money would instead be used to pay 1,000 euros for each newborn child, which was one of HDZ's election promises. However, that measure would cost about 300 million kuna a year, which is far less than the money taken from the employment account.
According to media reports, HZZ leadership has been informed about the fact that they would receive just a quarter of last years' funds. With just 250 million kuna, HZZ would not be able to do much when it comes to young people, whose unemployment rate remains very high, and also with the long-term unemployed persons who are also a major problem. HZZ is expected to fill the budget hole with money from the European Social Fund and the Youth Guarantee Program. EU sources are expected to provide about 400 to 500 million kuna, which would be twice as much as last year.
However, the Ministry of Labour and Pension System has denied the allegations. There will be no redirection of funds, according to the Ministry. "In 2016, it is expected that we will receive 530 million kuna from the EU funds for the implementation of active employment policies, which is a significantly higher amount than last year. These funds, along with additional funds from the national budget that will be determined after the budget is finalized, will be sufficient for implementation of the program of active employment policies", claims the Ministry.
Milanka Opačić (SDP), former minister of social policy, does not believe that the government would decrease the funds appropriated for employment measures. "That would be the worst thing they could do", said Opačić, especially since during the election campaign HDZ repeatedly warned about the problem of young people leaving Croatia. She expressed her hope that the reports were just a "trial balloon".
