GREDELJ ON EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF JUDGES' REPORT ON CROATIA

ZAGREB, May 7 (Hina) - The appointment and replacement of court presidents by the Justice Minister, lack of respect for the mandate of current court presidents and a reduction of judges' salaries did not improve the independence of the Croatian judiciary but decreased the degree of the judges' autonomy, Croatia Judges' Association (UHS) president Vladimir Gredelj quoted the European Association of Judges (EAJ) as saying. #L# "Conclusions by the permanent working group for the problems of the EAJ member-countries show that the UHS was right when it warned that the alleged reform of the judiciary was a step back and not forward," Gredelj said at a press conference on Tuesday. Gredelj and UHS vice-president Djuro Sessa attended the annual session of the EAJ in Lausanne on May 2-5. A report on the situation in Croatia, the Czech Republic and Moldavia was adopted unanimously at the conference, Gredelj said. According to the EAJ's conclusions on Croatia, the new legal regulations have led to the strengthening of direct control of the legislative and executive authority over the judicial authority. The judiciary is not being provided with adequate working conditions and the country lacks judges, the EAJ noted. The EAJ will inform the Council of Europe and the European Commission about its conclusions and issue a special statement to warn the highest Croatian officials of the problems in the judiciary. Gredelj believes that the judiciary in Croatia is not being reformed, but that the authorities are applying ad hoc measures which he says will not help solve the gravest problems, such as a backlog of more than 1,100,000 cases and long trials. Djuro Sessa said that the Croatian delegation at the Lausanne conference refused a proposal for the establishment of a Balkan association of lawyers, as did Macedonian and Slovene delegations. (hina) rml sb