ZAGREB, Sept 10 (Hina) - Croatian opposition parties, namely the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) and the Democratic Centre (DC) welcomed Tuesday's meeting between Croatian and Slovene Prime
Ministers Ivica Racan and Janez Drnovsek but the agreement on the temporary regime on the sea in Piran Bay did not quite satisfy them.
ZAGREB, Sept 10 (Hina) - Croatian opposition parties, namely the
Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), the Croatian Party of Rights
(HSP) and the Democratic Centre (DC) welcomed Tuesday's meeting
between Croatian and Slovene Prime Ministers Ivica Racan and Janez
Drnovsek but the agreement on the temporary regime on the sea in
Piran Bay did not quite satisfy them. #L#
"I welcome the meeting... because it is necessary to discuss
contentious issues, but there is no need to nurture any illusions
that a solution will be achieved easily and that both sides will be
satisfied," vice president of the HSLS Josko Kontic said.
Kontic expects that a solution to the entire affair will
nevertheless require international arbitration or an intervention
of the International Maritime Court in Hamburg.
DC vice president Vesna Skare Ozbolt objected that after the
meeting, Premier Racan did not clearly state what points of the
agreement would be valid for three months with the possibility of
being extended.
It is also necessary to state whether the temporary solution is
closer to the demarcation line in the initialled agreement or to the
situation that existed prior to that, that is the centre of the Bay,
Ozbolt said.
She reiterated that her party supported the possibility of
arbitration which, in her opinion, would be a better solution than
the International Maritime Court.
HSP president Anto Djapic was dissatisfied with the agreement
between the two premiers.
He believes that the agreement is a compromise for Croatian
politics which gives Slovene fishermen the right to fish based on
the old, as he referred to, disastrous agreement on cross border
traffic and co-operation.
In addition, Djapic believes that it was not true that a temporary
regime pre-empted the future border because as he said, Croatia's
concessions were dangerous to the country.
Racan and Drnovsek agreed in Zagreb on Tuesday on a temporary regime
on the sea which will be valid for the next three months with a
possibility of being prolonged. The agreement regulates free
fishing to all licensed fishermen in keeping with the cross-border
agreement and a joint supervisory service will be arranged.
(hina) sp it ha