CoE DELEGATION MEETS PRESIDENT OF CRO PARLIAMENT AND PARTY REPS

ZAGREB, Nov 11 (Hina) - A delegation of the Council of Europe which is on a three-day observer mission in Croatia, on Wednesday held talks with the Croatian National Parliament president, Vlatko Pavletic, representatives of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and opposition parties. The talks focused on the fulfilment of Croatia's commitments assumed at it's accession into this institution. During its stay in Croatia, the delegation will meet representatives of the executive authority and the media, and will also visit Croatia's eastern city of Vukovar on Thursday. The Council of Europe representatives will submit a verbal report on Croatia's fulfilment of commitments upon their return to Strasbourg, while a written report will be discussed at January's session of the Council of Europe's observation committee. Following the meeting, Pavletic told reporters the talks had had a protocol significance, but was meant to point out that "we are observing their work with great interest and importance." "From the meeting with Mr. Speaker, we know that Croatia cares about the Council of Europe and would like to have the report very objective," a Council of Europe Rapporteur, Jerzy Jaskiernia, said. President of the HDZ Parliamentary bench, Vladimir Seks, said that the meeting put an accent on the Croatian Television (HTV) , that is, the non-adoption of recommendations made by the Council of Europe on the election of members of the HTV Council. "I stressed that we do not wish to be guinea pigs, a test ground, to adopt solutions that have not been tested anywhere, which do not exist anywhere," Seks said. Mato Arlovic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said after talks between opposition parties and the Council of Europe representatives, that most interest had been expressed about the stance of the opposition on the electoral law and freedom of the media. The new Law on Croatian Radio and Television has improved the situation, and, according to Arlovic, the opposition has asked the delegation to put a positive accent on that segment of the report regarding Croatia's admission into European associations. Boris Kandare of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), reminded the Council of Europe representatives about the existence of so-called right-wing opposition parties, and stressed that he considered the cause of the deadlock in democracy in Croatia to be the non- implementation of lustrations. (hina) lml jn/ab