If the parliament accepts the government's proposal to dissolve the Governing Council, a procedure will be initiated to appoint a new Governing Council, Mesic said answering reporters' questions during his regular meeting with citizens in his office.
"This is obviously a matter of procedure, the fifth member (of the Governing Council, representing the agency's employees) should have been appointed, and it is clear that the Council was not complete," Mesic said.
Speaking about the Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone, Mesic said that regardless of its sovereign right to activate the Zone to include also EU member-countries, before doing so, Croatia should talk again with its neighbours. "A solution should be sought in talks with our neighbours so that we could protect the fishing zone, its flora and fauna. We must do this together, it would not be good if Croatia did everything necessary and others did not."
Asked about secret foreign bank accounts for the purchase of arms for Croatia during the 1990s war, Mesic said that nobody doubted that, as a victim of brutal aggression, Croatia had to arm itself but could not do it legally due to an arms embargo. "Nobody is criticising those who had to find a channel to buy arms. The problem is not about the secret bank accounts, but about their number throughout the world and why it is still not clear how the money was spent," Mesic said.
He recalled having asked, in his capacity as Parliament Speaker, the late President Franjo Tudjman how the money was being spent, to which Tudjman said that accounts would be settled once the war was over.
"Now we see that a number of people acquired huge wealth during the several years of war in an unknown way."
Relevant institutions must establish the value of the funds, identify people who were responsible for them, establish what was bought with that money and how much of it ended up in private accounts, as well as to whom those accounts belong," Mesic said.
Asked about the notion of adopting a law that would enable the government to decide independently on the deployment of Croatian soldiers in crisis areas, without the consent of the parliament, Mesic said that defence legislation was being amended to adjust it to EU standards.
"This would probably include an amendment on the procedure of deployment of Croatian soldiers in international missions."
This must be solved only in such a way that would respect the Constitution, which is very clear about who decides on the deployment of the Croatian Army and I believe that changing the Constitution for that purpose is out of the question," Mesic said, adding that this topic would not be discussed at next week's meeting between PM Ivo Sanader and US President George W. Bush.