Davor Stern, the chairman of the supervisory board of Croatian oil and gas company INA, said in an interview with Hungarian internet portal Origo.hu on Thursday that Hungary’s MOL should keep its stake in INA but that INA should remain a national company.

Consolidating markets “is not the best way to go for a new nation state” such as Croatia, Stern said.

Stern has said several times in the past weeks that some parts of the shareholders agreement between MOL and the Croatian government must be reviewed. He proposed to the government re-negotiating the contract, and he asked Croatia’s competition authority to investigate whether the agreement was admissible in the first place.

MOL holds a 47.46% stake in INA and the Croatian government owns 44.84%. A recent purchase offer to INA shareholders by MOL failed to give it a majority stake in the unit.

In the interview with Origo.hu, Stern the shareholders agreement was a very broad one and its structure was “not in harmony” with Croatian corporate law.

Stern acknowledged that much had improved since MOL became an owner in INA in 2003, but chided the MOL managers at the company for not taking a bigger role in 2003-2008 to start refinery developments. INA’s management is “hindering the company because they want to achieve better profits”, he said.

Stern said it was “very regrettable” that MOL and INA had not merged in 1998, as “that would have been best for both companies”. He said the companies’ strategy should be one that keeps MOL as a major shareholder, “whom we respect and see as a friendly company”, but that also preserves INA as a national oil company, allowing it to follow the national energy strategy and keep its profit in the country.

Stern would not exclude the possibility of a share swap that would give the Croatian state a stake in MOL and allow MOL to boost its stake in INA, but said “INA has to stay for itself in Croatia, just as MOL is seen as a Hungarian company in Budapest.”