RIJEKA, June 6 (Hina) - Topics on regionalism and decentralisation are back on the political scene and it is necessary to gradually come to a national consensus in order to switch from a county to regional system, the president of the
Primorje-Gorski Kotar Alliance (PGS), Nikola Ivanis, said at a press conference Thursday.
RIJEKA, June 6 (Hina) - Topics on regionalism and decentralisation
are back on the political scene and it is necessary to gradually
come to a national consensus in order to switch from a county to
regional system, the president of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar
Alliance (PGS), Nikola Ivanis, said at a press conference Thursday.
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Representatives from the Slavonia-Baranja Croatian Party and
Rijeka Action of Social Democrats, Damir Juric and Damir Konestra
were also present at the press conference.
Ivanis reminded that the Motovun Declaration, signed by the Istrian
Democratic Assembly (IDS) and the PGS, had contributed to having
the Constitution refer to regional self-governments. The
decentralisation of the country should be approached more
decisively and should be implemented at the level of regional
parliaments. The state should transfer legislature and security to
these parliaments Ivanis said and announced that the leaders of
four regional parties would meet at the end of June to come up with a
possible joint programme in this direction. The meeting would
gather the Dalmatian Action (DA), the Slavonia-Baranja Croatian
Party (SBHS), the PGS and the IDS.
Damir Juric emphasised that the previous government had organised
the counties in a way which resulted in "preventative counter-
regionalisation" and because of national barriers, regions were
not set up immediately in the nineties. The notion of a region is
much stronger than that of an area he said. Unfortunately the term
was unpopular and dubious, he added. He stressed that regions
should have an assembly as this would contribute to savings and
efficiency and this was expected of us by the European Union.
(hina) sp sb