RADICAL CHANGES TO LOCAL GOVT AND SELF-GOVT ARE NECESSARY - SEKS

ZAGREB, Nov 19 (Hina) - Vice-president of the Croatian National Parliament House of Representatives and of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Vladimir Seks, on Friday advocated "radical changes" to the systems of local government and self- government. "Changes should tend to the decentralisation and transferral of a bugger number of governing functions to units of local government and self-government, especially to municipalities and towns. Parallel to these changes the reform of their financing system should be carried out," Seks said at a seminar "Public Government in a Democratic Society". Existing laws connected with local government and self-government with an accent on decentralisation in the performance of state functions were passed during the time the Croatian state was in the process of achieving independence and until the end of the process of peaceful reintegration of the eastern Croatian Danubian region there were no preconditions for decentralisation, Seks said. A group of experts was formed within the Government to make a drastic turn-around in solving the problems of local government and self-government, and thus, get closer to the idea that the power of democracy lay in local government and self-government, Seks said. (hina) lml mm