CROATIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS VISIT SWISS PARLIAMENT

BERN, Oct 1 (Hina) - Croatian Parliament Speaker Zlatko Tomcic and his Swiss counterpart, president of the Swiss Federal Assembly, Peter Hess, on Monday discussed the two countries' political and economic relations, assessing Switzerland's investments in Croatia were very positive. Tomcic is heading a Croatian parliamentary delegation on a two-day official visit to the Swiss Confederation's Federal Assembly. According to the parliament speaker, there is a considerable interest among Swiss companies in making investments in Croatia. He said a visit by a delegation of the Swiss parliamentary committee on economy and taxation to the Croatian parliament had been agreed as part of efforts to intensify the two countries' economic cooperation. The Croatian parliamentarians and their hosts discussed Croatia's bids to join European integration processes and the situation in South-East Europe. A member of the delegation, Parliament Deputy Speaker and chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Zdravko Tomac, said all political parties in Croatia were unanimous in rejecting any institutional links between Croatia and the Western Balkans. "There is a consensus in Croatia to strongly reject all initiatives leading to the institutional linking of western Balkan countries, such as the one by (German Foreign Minister Joschka) Fischer," Tomac said. Commenting on the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tomac said the country had no future as long as "an ethnically clean Republika Srpska exists on 50% of its territory." "One must launch changes to the (country's) constitution so that Bosnia-Herzegovina could be organised in cantons in the future, like Switzerland," he said. The Croatian parliamentarians are expected to meet Croats emigrants later in the day. (hina) rml