CROATIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER AT CEI MEETING IN BUDAPEST

BUDAPEST, March 30 (Hina) - The role of all regional organisations is irreplaceable, including the Central European Initiative, because it can not only contribute to the stability of the region, economic progress but it can also accelerate the process of integration with the European Union and NATO, Croatian parliament speaker Zlatko Tomcic said at a meeting of parliament speakers of the Central European Initiative (CEI) member-countries in Budapest on Friday. The meeting is called "Regional Cooperation and European Integration". Peace is a condition for stability in the region, stability in the region is a condition for progress and overall progress is a condition for approaching Euro-Atlantic integration, the Croatian parliament speaker said in his speech at the meeting. Addressing the participants, Tomcic said that CEI member-countries were also involved in three basic processes -- the process of expansion, the stabilisation and association process and the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe. CEI member-countries are in a different situation than European Union member-countries. Austria and Italy are European Union member-countries while seven CEI member-countries are candidates for European Union membership. Croatia is currently conducting negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union. In order to strengthen the economy of CEI member-countries, it is necessary to continue good-neighbourly relations and political dialogue, Tomcic said. The Croatian parliament speaker also held several bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other countries. The Central European Initiative was established in 1989 and gathers 17 countries: Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Byelorussia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldavia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Romania and Ukraine. (hina) it sb