ZAGREB, July 5 (Hina) - A majority of members of the parliament endorsed a draft act on identity cards, under which the IDs of Croatian citizens should be adjusted to the same documents in the European Union. The new cards will be
bilingual - with contents written in the Croatian and English languages. The family name (surname) will be cited first and followed by the name. The cards will be smaller in comparison to existing ones, said Croatian Deputy Interior Minister Josip Vresk. There will be no more the identification personal number (JMBG) in the cards in order to avoid the abuse of that data. The holders of the IDs will be all of age of 14 and above, Vresk told the Sabor. He added that the government would do its best to reduce costs of the change of IDs as much as possible. While MPs of parties which make up the ruling coalition supported the bill, members of the strongest opposition party - HDZ -
ZAGREB, July 5 (Hina) - A majority of members of the parliament
endorsed a draft act on identity cards, under which the IDs of
Croatian citizens should be adjusted to the same documents in the
European Union.
The new cards will be bilingual - with contents written in the
Croatian and English languages. The family name (surname) will be
cited first and followed by the name.
The cards will be smaller in comparison to existing ones, said
Croatian Deputy Interior Minister Josip Vresk.
There will be no more the identification personal number (JMBG) in
the cards in order to avoid the abuse of that data.
The holders of the IDs will be all of age of 14 and above, Vresk told
the Sabor. He added that the government would do its best to reduce
costs of the change of IDs as much as possible.
While MPs of parties which make up the ruling coalition supported
the bill, members of the strongest opposition party - HDZ - were not
unanimous in the stand on the changes.
On behalf of the HDZ bench, Ivan Penic backed the changes,
explaining that the current IDs were not practical.
Zdenka Babic-Petricevic of the HDZ, however, said she was going to
vote against the bill as she believed that the citing of data also in
English was not in compliance with the Croatian constitution.
Most parliamentarians supported a report on the work of the
Croatian Bank for the Reconstruction and Development (HBOR).
They, however, said the HBOR should grant more loans for export-
oriented activities. MPs suggested that some loan programmes
should be elaborated in a better manner, as it was, for instance,
almost impossible to get a loan for family-run tourist trade.
Responding to MPs' objections that the bank did not sufficiently
supported small and medium-sized businesses, HBOR Management
Chairman Anton Kovacev, said the bank had offered as many financial
means as there were high-quality programmes.
Last year, the HBOR introduced favourable conditions such as lower
interest rates and longer grace period for loans granted to
companies which invested in the areas of the special state concern
and in islands, he added.
Despite the announcement, the Sabor on Thursday did not discuss
changes to the law on compensation for property confiscated during
the Yugoslav Communist rule. On behalf of the five ruling parties'
benches, Social Democrat Mato Arlovic asked for postponement in the
discussion so that a bill could once again be considered, but he did
not specify what was contentious in the draft act.
(hina) sb ms