ZAGREB, Dec 29 (Hina) - The adoption of constitutional changes has been viewed by a majority of political analysts as the most important decision made by the Croatian parliament- Sabor - in 2000.
ZAGREB, Dec 29 (Hina) - The adoption of constitutional changes has
been viewed by a majority of political analysts as the most
important decision made by the Croatian parliament- Sabor - in
2000.#L#
Adopting the amendments to the Constitution, the ruling six-party
coalition fulfilled its pre-election promise to change the semi-
presidential system into a parliamentary one.
Since the January election, the new composition of the national
parliament held nine sessions, one of which was extraordinary.
At the January 3 ballot, voters elected 151 deputies from 11
political parties.
The largest number of seats - 68 - was won by the coalition of the SDP
(Social Democratic Party) and the HSLS (Croatian Social Liberal
Party). Another four parties - HSS, HNS, LS and IDS - which make up
together with the HSLS and the SDP the incumbent ruling six-party
coalition, offered their joint roster at the ballot. Of them, HSS
(Croatian Peasants' Party) got 16 seats in the Sabor, IDS (Istrian
Democratic Alliance) four (4) and HNS (Croatian People's Party) and
LS (Liberal Party) each two seats.
The former ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), defeated at the
vote, mustered 46 parliamentary seats. The Croatian Party of Rights
(HSP) has now four seats, and the Croatian Christian Democratic
Union (HKDU) which forms together with HSP the HSP/HKDU bench, has
one deputy in the lower house.
Regional parties - PGS (Primorje-Gorski Kotar Alliance) and SBHS
(Slavonian-Baranian Croatian Party) - have two and one deputy
respectively, whereas national minorities are represented by five
deputies.
In April, three members of the HDZ left that strongest opposition
party and set up a new political party - Democratic Centre (DC) - at
whose helm is a former foreign minister, Mate Granic. Later in the
year, yet another member of the HDZ, Djurio Njavro, left that party
and joined the DC parliamentary bench. Zlatko Canjuga, who entered
the Sabor as a HDZ member, also left that party and joined the
Croatian Independent Democrats (HND).
That's why, the Sabor's House of Representatives finished this year
with 13 political parties having seats in it.
According to the adopted constitutional changes, th Government is
no longer responsible before the President of the Republic. The
parliamentary democracy, for which the Sabor voted, stipulates
that the Government answers to the national parliament.
The powers of the President of the Republic has been lessened as
well. However, he remains to be the supreme commander of the armed
forces and has certain authorities in the foreign police and in the
control over security services. The President will in future also
be elected at direct elections.
According to parliamentary debates prior to the adoption of the
constitutional amendments, the purpose of those changes was to make
it possible for the balance to be held between all three branches of
the authorities as well as to make it impossible for anybody of them
to have too much power in only their hands.
The constitutional changes restored the previous name of the
parliament - 'Hrvatski Sabor (the Croatian parliament)' - after it
had been called 'Hrvatski Drzavni Sabor (the Croatian national
parliament)' for some time.
The Sabor adopted a declaration on the cooperation with the Hague-
based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY), and this documents restated the stand that all perpetrators
of war crimes in the area of the former Yugoslavia should be
punished regardless of their ethnic origins and of offices they
took.
For Croatia it is indisputable that the ICTY has the jurisdiction
over war crimes perpetrated during the Homeland Defence War and in
its wake. In this context, the country has bound itself to see that
its judicial bodies will take all necessary measures to find and
process war criminals.
In order to facilitate Croatia's admission into the World Trade
Organisation (WTO), the parliament amended many laws such as the
import tariffs act which cuts duties by 8 percent.
In May, the Sabor passed a package of laws to cut by two points
contributions taken from gross salaries for the payment of health
insurance (lessened from 9 to seven percent) and pension insurance
(from 10.75 to 8.75). Thus, the price of labour on the average
decreased by 3.30 percent.
One of further attempts of the parliament to help disburden the
economy was its adoption of the tax law under which the profit tax
would be slashed from 35 to 20 percent. This measure and other tax
reliefs were okayed by the Sabor in the end of this year.
Earlier this month it also gave the green light for the 2001 budget,
worth 49.67 million kuna. This was the first time to adopt the
budget smaller than the budget for the previous year.
The parliament will be in session in the mid-January.
(hina) ms