PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT, WAR VETERANS DISCUSS SHARE FUND

ZAGREB, Feb 25 (Hina) - Croatian parliament president Zlatko Tomcic on Tuesday met members of a commission of the state co-ordinating body of Homeland War veterans' associations in charge of the allocation of company shares to war veterans. #L# Tomcic told reporters that a bill on a fund for soldiers and their families regulating this issue was in parliamentary procedure and he believed it could receive the MPs' support. The purpose of the bill is to prevent the devaluation of the seven percent of shares (in INA, HEP and HT companies) which war veterans were granted under a special law. The purpose of the bill is to enable the soldiers to benefit in the long run from possessing those shares, Tomcic said. A member of the commission, Petar Lovric, said the government did not respect the agreed deadline for putting forward the bill, and this was done by deputies Pavle Kalinic and Stjepan Zivkovic. The commission is now conducting consultations with party benches and the parliament president, he said, adding that all competent ministries had assessed the bill positively. Under the bill, the shares of Croatian Telecom (HT), Croatian Oil Industry (INA) and Croatian Power Company (HEP), which would be granted to war veterans and their families, would flow into the said fund, which would be managed by a steering committee of four ministers, four veterans' representatives and parliamentary deputies. The committee would elect a management board, after which war veterans would register their shares, based on criteria defined by War Veterans' Minister, depending on when they joined the war and how long they were on the front, Lovric said. (hina) rml