CRO DEPUTY PREMIER MEETS COUNCIL OF EUROPE RAPPORTEURS

ZAGREB, April 18 (Hina) - Croatian First Deputy Premier Goran Granic on Tuesday held talks with Council of Europe rapporteurs Jerzy Jaskiernia and Marija Stojanova about the fulfilling the remaining conditions Croatia received while becoming a full member of the Council of Europe. After the talks, Granic said that both parties expressed hope that this was the last visit of Council of Europe rapporteurs of the kind. "Representatives of the Council of Europe will gladly visit Croatia, but as our guests and maybe we will work on joint task in the future", Granic said. "We gave answers, which I believe were to the satisfaction of the Council of Europe and I believe that their report will be positive", the First Deputy Premier concluded. We have noticed that the Croatian Government invested great efforts in meeting the conditions, Stojanova said and added they also tackled the judiciary, return of refugees and freedom of media. We received satisfactory answers and we expects the Croatian Government to keep some of the promises for Croatia's well-being by June, Stojanova added. Council of Europe rapporteurs are to submit a report at a session of the monitoring Committee in Paris in June. The report will than be forwarded to the Croatian Government. The Government must respond within three months, and the Monitoring Committee will examine and discuss the report again. We hope that the report will be completed by the end of this year, Stojanova concluded. (hina) it jn