ZAGREB, April 10 (Hina) - Croatia has been admitted to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly as an observer, said the Assembly's chairman Javier Ruperez on Monday in Zagreb where arrived for an official visit.
ZAGREB, April 10 (Hina) - Croatia has been admitted to the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly as an observer, said the Assembly's
chairman Javier Ruperez on Monday in Zagreb where arrived for an
official visit.#L#
I notified the President of the Croatian National Sabor that last
Saturday our committee in Brussels decided to accept the presence
of a Croatian parliamentary delegation as an observer in the work of
our Parliamentary Assembly, Ruperez said after he held a meeting
with Sabor President Zlatko Tomcic who invited the NATO official to
visit Croatia.
Tomcic applauded the news about Croatia's accession in the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly as an observer.
It is "one of first steps in Croatia's bids to enter finally NATO and
the European Union as a full member," Tomcic added.
Ruperez said that now the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation could
start thinking of raising the cooperation with Croatia at a higher
level in coming months.
I told Sabor President that we were following attentively latest
developments in Croatia and that we hoped that it would become a
full member of the European community in the near future, he added.
According to a statement released by the Sabor, Ruperez informed
Tomcic that a Croatian delegation would be invited to attend, in
capacity of an observer, a plenary session of the NATO
Parliamentary Assembly scheduled for May in Budapest.
In addition, a possibility is considered of giving Croatia a status
of an associate member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the NATO
official added.
Emphasising that "integration processes Croatia should enter are
very complex", Tomcic said it was the reason why he had invited the
NATO Parliamentary Assembly chairman to visit Zagreb.
"We have invited representatives of the NATO Parliamentary
Assembly to consider what is being done here and to hear from them
(...) whether the process of Croatia's approaching EuroAtlantic
integration structures is proceeding in line with expectations,"
Tomcic said.
The Croatian official said his talks with Ruperez had revolved
around the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement and
Zagreb's transparent policy towards Bosnia, as main aims of new
Croatian authorities' policy.
Tomcic told his interlocutor that the Government was working
intensively on the adjustment of Croatia's legislation regarding
refugee returns, minorities' rights, reconstruction and media
freedoms, the statement read. He informed Ruperez that the
authorities took into account proposals of the OSCE mission in
Croatia, the European Troika and UNHCR relating to this matter, and
added that draft acts would soon be in a parliamentary procedure.
Sabor President expressed confidence that his country would enter
the Partnership for Peace programme in coming months.
Ruperez told Tomcic he was expecting of Croatia to make substantial
progress in the field of human rights and rights of national
minorities, and suggested that the command over armed forces be
tied with a role of Prime Minister and Defence Minister.
Tomcic reiterated Croatia's decisiveness to be orientated towards
accession in NATO and EU.
(hina) ms