PRESIDENTIAL COUNCIL WON'T BE PARALLEL MECHANISM OF AUTHORITY

ZAGREB, April 3 (Hina) - A representative of the Croatian President's Office has announced the establishment of a presidential council which will be the umbrella body for various expert groups. "The Presidential Council will not be a parallel mechanism of authority, nor a mechanism for the preparation of political decisions," the Croatian President's adviser on internal affairs, Igor Dekanic, told reporters in Zagreb on Monday. According to the Croatian Constitution, in performing his duties, the President of the Republic is assisted by the Presidential Council and other advisory and assistant bodies whose members are appointed and relieved of duty by the President himself. The Presidential Council will not be a permanent body, but a flexible mechanism in which various expert groups and ad hoc working groups will analyse and motion ideas, said Dekanic. There is a possibility the Presidential Council will have a small, permanent core of several different working groups which would be composed of academicians, representatives of independent institutions, and intellectuals, Dekanic added. Speaking about changes to the Constitution, he said the working group the President recently established should complete its suggestions this week. President Stipe Mesic will examine the suggestions most probably on Friday, upon returning from a visit to Macedonia, and then decide whether the suggestions will make the official motion or not. "We shall organise a meeting between our and the government's working group probably this, or next week at the latest," Dekanic concluded. (hina) ha jn