CROATIAN PARLIAMENT LOWER HOUSE DISCUSSES BILL ON GOVERNMENT

( Editorial: --> 6148 ) ZAGREB, Jan 21 (Hina) - After discussing the Bill on Government, members of the Croatian Parliament's House of Representatives concluded on Wednesday that a number of provisions had to be elaborated on. The Bill was supported by the Parliament's working bodies, while representatives of opposition party benches suggested several times during the discussion that the Bill be withdrawn from the procedure or rejected in the first reading. Administration Minister Davorin Mlakar said the bill contained a provision which stipulated that in case of a determined illegal act by heads of local self-government units, the government could relieve them of their duties. It had also been suggested that the government should hold closed sessions, which would be open to the press only in exceptional cases, Mlakar said. The Committee for the Constitution, Rule Book and the Political System held that the provision on the dismissal of municipal heads and mayors should be erased, adding that the issue had to be regulated with the Law on Local Self-Government and Government. Opposition MPs especially supported this suggestion. Members of the Croatian Peasants' Party held that the relation between executive and local authorities had to be resolved with a "whole lot more sensibility". The provision of dismissing municipal heads and mayors was described by the Istrian Democratic Party as utterly inappropriate, while the Social Democratic Party warned that the provision was not in compliance with a decision of the Constitutional Court concerning the Law on Local Self-Government, as well as with the European Charter on Local Self-Government. The Croatian Social Liberal Party estimated that such a provision would provoke a strong resistance and a deterioration in Croatia's position in all international circles. MPs also lashed out at a provision stipulating that government members would take oaths only before the Croatian President, and requested that the oaths be taken before the House of Representatives also. (hina) lm jn 211851 MET jan 98