09.03.2026.
The Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund will provide compensation for workers exposed to asbestos, who have not been covered by the legal solution so far. Minister of environmental protection and green transition, Marija Vučković, presented draft amendments to the act and modifications to compensation of employees of the companies Plobest d.d. and Salonit d.d. in administration Vranjic before them being sent to public consultation."This is a single compensation of 29,100 euros, and at this point we can estimate there are approximately 400 more workers from Salonit and Plobest. So, the total amount is about 10 or 11 million euros, but this is still just a proposal," said the minister, adding that the goal of these changes was to ensure that everyone who actually was exposed to asbestos - regardless of the formal working conditions - receives fair compensation. "The Government of the Republic of Croatia actively recognises their contribution and protects the rights of people who worked in demanding and dangerous conditions," concluded the minister, adding that these two acts manifested the social and political will of the state to offer additional measures to those workers in the light of their compromised health, diminished quality of life, and increased vulnerability to poverty. The funds will be underwritten by the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, and both acts legally provide for the right of inheritance for families in the case of five years of exposure to asbestos.
The minister pointed out that the remediation of the coastal part of Kosica in Vranjic, a project worth about four million euros, would start soon, financed from EU funds under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Apart from the minister, the conference was also attended by the director of the Directorate for Nature Protection, Igor Kreitmeyer, the head of the Independent Legal Affairs Sector of the Ministry Ivana Palinić Galović, the head of the Sustainable Waste Management Sector, Sanja Radović, and the head of the Legal Affairs Sector at the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, Srđana Piasevoli.
The sector head Radović presented the draft Instruction on the Waste Management Information System, which is also to be sent to public consultation, and its goal is to clearly standardise and regulate the types of data and their availability in the waste management information system.
Igor Kreitmeyer, the director of the Directorate for Nature Protection, presented the Draft Ordinance on the protection and conservation of the Nature Park "Žumberak - Samoborsko gorje", which is also to be sent to public consultation, and which prescribes in more detail the measures for the protection, conservation, improvement, and use of this nature park as well as its management zone.
