SYMPOSIUM ON CROATIA'S, BH'S ROLE IN EUROPEAN COMMUNICATION CORRID ORS ENDS

ORS ENDS SARAJEVO, June 4 (Hina) - A two-day symposium on the position and role of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Europe's transport and communication corridors, organized in Sarajevo by Bosnia's and Croatia's science and art academies, ended on Wednesday with the adoption of a final document. The participants in the symposium pointed out the fact that the war had excluded Croatia and BH from the European transport network. It was said that the decisions of the Pan-European Transport Conference, held on Crete in 1994, did not take into consideration the fact that the briefest connection of the greater part of the European continent with the Adriatic Sea, South Eastern Europe and the Near East crossed Croatia and BH. Attempts by Croatian and BH representatives to bring back their countries to the European corridor network gave certain results, so that the next Pan-European Transport Conference, to be held in Helsinki at the end of June this year, should discuss new proposals for the establishment of Europe's transport infrastructure. The participants at the Sarajevo two-day symposium agreed that of vital significance for Croatia and BH was the establishment of five corridors on land: from Budapest (Hungary) via Osijek (Croatia) and Sarajevo (BH) to the port of Ploce (Croatian Adriatic); from Budapest via Virovitica (Croatia) and Banja Luka (BH) to the port of Split (Croatian Adriatic); from Ljubljana (Slovenia) via Karlovac (Croatia), Bihac, Sarajevo and Gorazde (all in BH) to Albania; and from Trieste (Italy) along the Slovenian and Croatian Adriatic coast, via Rijeka (Croatian northern Adriatic), Neum (BH Adriatic) and Dubrovnik (southern Croatian Adriatic) to Tirana (Albania). Also pointed out during the symposium was the significance of two corridors which should cross only Croatia; from Budapest via Zagreb and Rijeka to Trieste; and from Ljubljana via Zagreb and Belgrade (Yugoslav capital) to Athens (Greece). Stating that the Sava river (border between Croatia and northern BH) and the Sava-Danube canal had special significance for Croatia and BH, the participants in the symposium decided this issue would be discussed at a special meeting next year. It was also decided that Croatia and BH must also access the system of European and inter-continental corridors and work at increasing the number of flights over their air space. State bodies of Croatia and BH will be acquainted with the symposium's conclusions, so that they could be presented at the forthcoming Pan- European Transport Conference. The two-day symposium in Sarajevo was attended by top BH officials and the Croatian Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Communications, Zeljko Luzavec. (hina) ha jn 041507 MET jun 97