ZAGREB, Oct 16 (Hina) - Rapporteur for the Council of Europe Local Self-Government Congress, Helene Lund, held a news conference in Zagreb on Thursday, at which she said that local self-government in Croatia was developing
positively.
ZAGREB, Oct 16 (Hina) - Rapporteur for the Council of Europe Local
Self-Government Congress, Helene Lund, held a news conference in
Zagreb on Thursday, at which she said that local self-government in
Croatia was developing positively. #L#
Lund arrived in Zagreb on Wednesday as head of a Council of
Europe Local Self-Government Congress delegation, to see how local
self-government functions in Croatia.
Lund told reporters that the Croatian Parliament had on 23
September ratified an European Charter on Local Self-Government,
adding that it would begin to implement it in three months.
Commenting on a letter about a local power crisis which
Primorje-Gorski Kotar County opposition parties had forwarded to the
Congress, Lund said that such problems had to be solved by Croatia
itself.
The County Assembly was dissolved after half the councillors
handed their resignations.
Lund described the situation as a very unhappy political
stale-mate.
She expressed hope that broadening of political experience
would prevent recurrence of such situations in the future.
Lund held talks on Thursday with the president of the
Association of Croatian Cities and Municipalities, Nikola Obuljen,
and mayors of Zadar, Rijeka and Crikvenica.
Obuljen said that there was no special need to amend the
Croatian Law on Local Self-Government because the provisions of the
European Charter have been included in the Law.
Lund stressed that Croatia's adoption of the Charter was a big
step forward regarding the promotion of local self-government in
comparison to Great Britain and France which had not ratified the
Charter.
(hina) lm jn
161855 MET oct 97