SARAJEVO, July 8 (Hina) - Croatia's Labour and Social Welfare Minister Joso Skara on Thursday held talks with the Minister of Labour, Social Policy and Refugees of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sulejman Garib. The talks, held
at the Croatian Embassy in Sarajevo, focused on social care, reciprocal payment of pensions and the debt thus incurred since 1992. Following the talks, Skara said an agreement was reached in full on ways of taking over and paying the costs of social care, which is an integral part of an annex from the Agreement on Special Relations between Croatia and the Federation. Experts groups from Croatia and the Federation will meet in early September to resolve the problem of social insurance, including health care, child allowances and pensions. Skara said the question of the debt incurred on the basis of payment of pensions during the war had still not been resolved. Since
SARAJEVO, July 8 (Hina) - Croatia's Labour and Social Welfare
Minister Joso Skara on Thursday held talks with the Minister of
Labour, Social Policy and Refugees of the Federation of Bosnia-
Herzegovina, Sulejman Garib.
The talks, held at the Croatian Embassy in Sarajevo, focused on
social care, reciprocal payment of pensions and the debt thus
incurred since 1992.
Following the talks, Skara said an agreement was reached in full on
ways of taking over and paying the costs of social care, which is an
integral part of an annex from the Agreement on Special Relations
between Croatia and the Federation.
Experts groups from Croatia and the Federation will meet in early
September to resolve the problem of social insurance, including
health care, child allowances and pensions.
Skara said the question of the debt incurred on the basis of payment
of pensions during the war had still not been resolved. Since 1992,
Croatia has been securing pension allowances for 21,376 persons
which had acquired the right to pension allowance in Bosnia-
Herzegovina.
"The total debt thus incurred has risen to DM300 million", said
Skara, adding Croatia insisted on the settlement of the debt.
Pension funds in the Federation were also paying pensions for a
certain number of persons who had acquired to right to pension in
Croatia, but their number is much smaller and does not exceed
6,000.
During a discussion on the annexes of the Agreement on Special
Relations regulating the reciprocal payment of pensions, the
Federation side suggested that the debt incurred during the war be
written off.
Skara said the first step in the resolution of this problem would be
to exchange lists with the names of persons receiving pensions and
data regarding the amount of individual allowances.
The Federation's Garib described today's talks as very open.
During his visit to Sarajevo, Skara also met Deputy High
Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina in charge of economy, Didier
Fau.
According to Skara, talks with Fau focused on the need to adopt
agreements which would regulate possible investments of Croatian
companies into Bosnia-Herzegovina.
(hina) rml