RIJEKA, Dec 23 (Hina) - The chairman of the Italian Union's assembly, Maurizio Tremul, presented on Tuesday the programme agreement signed between the Italian minority MP Furio Radin and Croatia's Premier-Designate Ivo
Sanader.
RIJEKA, Dec 23 (Hina) - The chairman of the Italian Union's assembly,
Maurizio Tremul, presented on Tuesday the programme agreement signed
between the Italian minority MP Furio Radin and Croatia's
Premier-Designate Ivo Sanader.#L#
Tremul told a news conference the public attacks on Radin which ensued
after he signed the agreement were unjustified and that Radin enjoyed
the full support of the Italian Union.
Tremul said that as far as the Italian Union was concerned, the
relationship between the Union and the Istrian Democratic Assembly
(IDS) party in Istria County would not change because of the
agreement.
In the agreement Sanader has committed to fully implementing the
Croatia-Italy accord from 1996 on ethnic minorities' rights under
which all the rights the Italian minority had gained in Croatia were
protected.
Sanader has also committed to establishing a permanent commission
which would monitor the implementation of the Sanader-Radin agreement.
The commission, which would also include members of the Italian Union,
would meet twice a year, with the prime minister attending.
Under the Sanader-Radin agreement, Italian minority associations and
institutions would receive better funding. Budgetary funds for the
Rijeka-based publisher Edit would be increased by 30 percent
annually.
The agreement binds the government to show more sensitivity for areas
populated by the Italian community for the purpose of recognising
specific characteristics, and preserving and promoting co-existence.
Moreover, the bilingual names of local self-government units whose
statutes envisage the official use of Italian will be entered into the
law on said units.
The agreement states the signatories are agreed the preservation and
promotion of anti-fascist values are fundamental to the new Europe,
and that Sanader's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, although it
is not envisaged in its platform, respects the Italian community's
position that ethnic minorities should be granted double voting
rights.
Radin has committed to supporting Sanader's cabinet, protecting ethnic
minorities' human rights as well as supporting economic programmes
focusing on Croatia's development, Euro-Atlantic integration
processes, the reform of the justice system, the development of
relations with neighbouring countries, and cooperation with the war
crimes tribunal in The Hague.
(Hina) ha sb