LUZAVEC: CROATIA WILL BECOME PART OF EUROPE'S TRAFFIC SYSTEM

HELSINKI, 23 June (Hina) - Croatia will become part of Europe's traffic system at the Helsinki conference, which has opened on Monday, said Croatia's Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Communications, Zeljko Luzavec, who is leading a Croatian delegation at the 3rd pan- European conference on traffic. Croatia's integration into Europe's traffic system comes after a three-year period of traffic isolation, which was the result of the Crete conference, Luzavec said. 'Here, we are being fully integrated into Europe's traffic system', Luzavec told Hina when asked what Croatia expected from the Helsinki conference. 'Had we achieved less, we would still be satisfied, but now we are delighted', Luzavec said. There is reason enough for Luzavec's enthusiasm when one knows that at the second pan-European conference on traffic, held on Crete three years ago, Croatia became completely isolated from Europe's traffic system. Following a proposal by the European Commission, the Crete conference accepted nine traffic corridors which were of pan-European importance and which almost completely rounded Croatia. According to the 'Crete corridors' plan, Croatia could join the system, that is, its corridor 5, only with one branch - from Rijeka to Postojna. According to the draft final document of the Helsinki conference, Croatia's territory will be traversed by corridor 5 branches: Rijeka - Zagreb - Budapest, Ploce (Croatian port in central Adriatic) - Sarajevo - Osijek, the new corridor 10 Salzburg - Ljubljana - Zagreb - Belgrade - Skopje - Salonika and its branch Graz - Maribor - Zagreb. Luzavec stressed the importance of support given to Croatia by a conference of six ministers of transport of Central Europe, held in Prague in March 1997 and a conference of European ministers of transport held in Berlin in April 1997. Speaking about the direction Ploce - Budapest, Luzavec said that it was of special importance since it activated the northern part of Croatia which is considerably isolated, in terms of traffic. It would also activate the area of Osijek and Croat-populated parts of Bosnia- Herzegovina as well as Ploce port. Luzavec also stressed the importance of the direction Zagreb - Split, which is to be discussed more at the conference. The direction 7, 'Danube', is also very important for Croatia, Luzavec said, adding that the construction of the canal Sava - Danube and Croatia's linking to this direction would activate its river traffic. The Helsinki conference is so far the biggest European conference on traffic. It gathered 1,100 participants from 52 countries and international organisations. The conference was organised by the European Commission and European Parliament. (hina) rm jn 231747 MET jun 97