LOWER HOUSE ADOPTS NEW RULE BOOK

ZAGREB, June 30 (Hina) - The Croatian National Parliament's House of Representatives on Friday completed the first half of this year's regular parliamentary sitting by adopting a new Rule Book, which is to be applied as of this autumn. According to the new Rule Book, the lower house will have new working bodies - committees for European integration, gender equality, computerisation and media. The establishment of committees for areas of special state concern and islands was not accepted with the explanation that those issues can be dealt with within the scope of the existing working bodies. Question time at the beginning of every new regular session will in the future last up to four hours, and questions and answers by deputies and government members will be limited to two minutes each. The new Rule Book re-introduces the institute of rebuttal, with the duration of two minutes, and the institute of interpellation. The Sabor will no longer only listen to reports by the President of the Republic, but also discuss them. The new Rule Book also defines the deadlines for the institute of impeachment, i.e. for establishing whether the President is responsible for violating the Constitution and his replacement. An electronic vote will be introduced in the Sabor by March 1 2001 at the latest. The lower house today also scheduled an extraordinary session for July 12. (hina) mm rml