"Transparency is part of our responsibility to citizens of Croatia and proves that we accept European Union standards," Sanader said at a round-table discussion on the financing of political parties and election campaigns.
The round table was organised by the Central Office for State Administration, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the election-monitoring non-governmental organisation known by its Croatian acronym GONG, and Transparency International Croatia.
OSCE Mission Chief Jorge Fuentes supported the Croatian government's efforts, saying he did not want Croatia to have problems or scandals in connection with the financing of political parties.
Sanader said that the purpose of the new bill was to find the best model of funding political parties in order to ensure transparency of donations and their amount. He noted that the law was drafted as part of the National Anti-Corruption Programme, and announced that his government would also prepare a bill regulating voter registration.
Parliament Speaker Vladimir Seks said that the Croatian public had been awaiting this bill "for much too long" and that it would "consolidate the framework of political fair play."
Under the bill, political parties would be financed from three sources: from the state budget, with parliamentary parties being entitled to the amount of money in proportion to the number of seats they fill on the day of inauguration of the new parliament, from membership fees, and from donations in funds, commodities and services, explained Antun Palaric, state secretary at the Central Office for State Administration.
The government set a maximum donation limit of 90,000 kuna for natural persons and one million kuna for legal entities. All donations would have to be subject to a report by the State Audit Service which would be presented before the parliament. Anonymous donations, as well as donations by foreign countries, parties or legal entities, would be banned. Any political party that fails to comply would face a fine of 500,000 kuna, while a responsible individual in the given party would face a fine of 20,000 kuna.
Zorislav Antun Petrovic of Transparency International Croatia described the proposed bill as a good step towards tackling the problem, but noted that it would require additional fine-tuning.
GONG representative Suzana Jasic called for the funding of election campaigns to be regulated by a separate law, because of a large number of independent candidates running in elections and because parties spend the most during election campaigns.