ZAGREB ZAGREB, May 10 (Hina) - Croatian parliament president Zlatko Tomcic on Friday opened a conference of European parliamentary assembly presidents, a two-day event which has pooled in Zagreb more than 400 participants, including
some 70 presidents and vice presidents of member-country parliaments.
ZAGREB, May 10 (Hina) - Croatian parliament president Zlatko Tomcic
on Friday opened a conference of European parliamentary assembly
presidents, a two-day event which has pooled in Zagreb more than 400
participants, including some 70 presidents and vice presidents of
member-country parliaments. #L#
Tomcic said in his opening address the conference was an attempt to
jointly find adequate answers to the growing threat of terrorism, a
plague which he said constituted a danger to the basic principles of
the international order and, therefore, called for joint and
legitimate preventive actions.
In every legitimate struggle, including the one against terrorism,
human rights and freedoms have to be respected, said Tomcic. It is
necessary to fill the extant void in international law with a
comprehensive convention against international terrorism, he
added.
"If democracy is tolerance, terrorism is intolerance. But if
democracy is tolerance it is not and must not be indecisiveness.
Especially when it is faced with terrorism," said Tomcic.
Tomcic briefed the participants in the conference about the steps
Croatia, as a country aware that terrorism demands an
uncompromising answer on the national, regional, and global
levels, was taking against it.
Tomcic thanked the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly for the
trust shown Croatia and its parliament with the conference. He said
that Croatia, as a signatory to a Stabilisation and Association
Agreement with the European Union, was genuinely turned to European
values and wished to take a place within modern Europe and its
integration processes as soon as possible, to mutual benefit.
The central event of today's sitting will be a half-hour address by
the president of the Spanish senate, Esperanza Aguirre Gil de
Biedma, on the topic "Democracies Faced with Terrorism - National
Strategies", to be followed by a debate.
The first day of the conference will end with a meeting of
parliamentary general secretaries. In the evening the participants
will attend a performance of selected arias from the Croatian
operas "Nikola Subic Zrinski" and "Ero s onoga svijeta" at the
Croatian National Theatre.
On Saturday the president of the German parliament, Wolfgang
Thierse, will deliver an opening speech on the other topic of the
conference, an appeal for the passing of a charter on states'
obligations, to be followed by a discussion. Croatian President
Stjepan Mesic will also make a speech.
The conference will end with addresses by Tomcic and Peter
Schieder.
(hina) ha