ROUND TABLE ON EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE HELD IN PULA

PULA, Sept 29 (Hina) - The European Union is regarded as a far-away goal in Croatia, for which realisation models are often missing, Croatian Helsinki Watch Division president Zarko Puhovski stated at Saturday's round table on European values from the Croatian and Istrian perspective, held in the north-Adriatic city of Pula. Puhovski criticised the EU because it showed solidarity towards the United States, but not other countries. The EU accepted a behavioural pattern under which, he said, "when half of New York is blown sky high, the rest of the world has to go the same way." He thinks it unacceptable that the United Nations Security Council consists of representatives of Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Buddhist countries, but not Muslim countries. In his estimate, the EU looks like Yugoslavia of the 1980s, when it existed as a confederation of executive powers without democracy. In case of the European Union, he said, there's the EU Parliament, which has no real power. Speaking for the Porec Civilian Initiative Centre, Mladen Momcilovic stated a general consensus will have to be reached in Croatia, as well as Istria, regarding the European perspective and development. "We expect the government to be more responsible towards the public and society in general, so the concern and general despondency of Croatian citizens over the lack of positive changes in society, guaranteeing better living, could be overcome," he concluded. (hina) js