HNS CRITICISES GOVERNMENT

ZAGREB, April 1 (Hina) - Croatian People's Party (HNS) leaders Vesna Pusic and Radimir Cacic on Thursday criticised the government for its vague economic, development and social policies, stressing that the problem of insolvency had re-emerged and that the process of the country's integration with the European Union had been stopped.#L# "The process of harmonisation of Croatian laws to those of the European Union has been dramatically stopped," Pusic said at a press conference, adding that the introduction of European standards and legislation in Croatia was the government's main task in getting the country closer to the EU. She added that only a few laws had been sent to parliament for adjustment to EU standards and that 170 were to be harmonised before the end of the year. "This shows that the Croatian parliament is being marginalised, that it functions as a siding rather than as the centre of reform," Pusic said, adding that the parliament mainly discussed initiatives put forward by the opposition, while those coming from the government were discussed elsewhere. Cacic said that "it is irresponsible to treat the government as successful because it has accepted minimum EU standards, such as cooperation with the Hague tribunal." Noting that the government had actually done nothing substantial, he said that economic growth had been reduced to two per cent in February after reaching 5.2 and 4.3 per cent for two consecutive years. "And now we have the worst thing that can happen to an economy: insolvency coupled with stagnation," he added. Cacic said that the HDZ-led government was trying to downplay the success of the previous government in tackling the insolvency problem and other issues. The chairman of the HNS club of deputies, Dragutin Lesar, complained that HNS-sponsored bills proposing better organisation of local government units were obstructed in parliament. (Hina) vm