Uncontrolled growth of the Swiss franc exchange rate has thrown tens of thousands of citizens around Croatia, but also the European Union, who have credit in that currency into despair. Therefore, the Head of the Croatian EPP Delegation in the European Parliament Dubravka Šuica requested assistance from the European Commission with regard to the credit slavery, which is too mild a term for what citizens with loans in Swiss francs are experiencing.
MEP Šuica considers that ˝at a time when the exchange rate of the Swiss franc is so wildly all over all over the board, it is time that banks take responsibility on themselves with regard to the legal positions relating to the foreign currency clause being invalid because consumers were not sufficiently informed about the possible risks and a credit in Swiss francs was presented as an ideal ´product´˝.
Suica informed the Commission about the judgment of the High Commercial Court that issued a final court judgment, which is in effect and which refers to variable interest rates, which declared null and void the contractual provisions of the loan agreements, and given that the rise in interest rates due to the unilateral decisions of banks was not transparent, such business operations were most negatively reflected on debtors of Swiss francs.
˝Citizens are desperate and do not have time to wait, and although the Government and the Parliament have taken certain measures, they are short-term and this is why I have asked the European Commission to react with an emergency procedure with the aim of introducing a mechanism that would be fix the exchange rate of the Swiss franc over the long term, given that this is a problem affecting many member States, as well as Croatia,˝ concluded Šuica.
In a letter to the Commission, MEP Šuica pointed out that since 1 January 2014 the Consumer Credit Act has been in effect, and in which it is stated that banks are required to conclude an annex agreement with each consumer which will regulate the method of determining the interest rate, but not one bank has not complied with this law.
