May 22 (SeeNews) - The European Commission urged Croatia on Monday to reinforce budgetary planning, discourage early retirement, improve adult education and public administration, and speed up privatisation.
Croatia must reinforce budgetary planning and the multiannual budgetary framework by September this year, and strengthen the independence and mandate of the Fiscal Policy Commission, the Commission said in its 2017 country-specific recommendations, part of the European Semester Spring Package.
Additionally, Croatia must take the necessary steps for the introduction of the value-based property tax and reinforce the framework for public debt management.
Under the second recommendation, the European Commission said Croatia should discourage early retirement, accelerate the transition to the higher statutory retirement age, and align pension provisions for specific categories with the rules of the general scheme.
Thirdly, the country is expected to improve adult education, in particular of older workers, the low-skilled, and the long-term unemployed.
The need to fragment and improve the functional distribution of competencies in public administration falls under the the fourth recommendation, which also encourages Croatia to harmonise the wage-setting framework.
Lastly, the Commission said Croatia must speed up the divestment of state-owned enterprises and other state assets, and improve corporate governance in the state-owned sector.