LOWER HOUSE ADOPTS CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES

( Editorial: --> 7975 ) ZAGREB, 12 Dec (Hina) - The Croatian Parliament's House of Representatives on Friday passed amendments to the Constitution and a decision on its promulgation. The amendments were adopted with 86 votes in favour, 24 against and eight abstentions. Nine deputies did not attend the session. According to the newly-adopted amendments and the preamble of the Constitution, "the Republic of Croatia is established as a national state of the Croatian people and the state of members of autochtonous national minorities: Serbs, Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, Hungarians, Jews, Germans, Austrians, Ukrainians, Ruthanians and other minorities who are its citizens". This amendment, according to which the Constitution retains the individually enumerated national minorities, was proposed by the Committee for the Constitution, Rules of Procedure and Political System, which also proposed the draft constitutional law. The amendment was initiated by representatives of national minorities Furio Radin, Njegovan Starek and Sandor Jakab. The Committee for the Constitution, Rules of Procedure and Political System also adopted an amendment to paragraph 2 of the preamble, proposed by Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) deputies. The amendment reads as follows: "With the new Constitution of the Republic of Croatia from 1990 and victory in the Homeland war (1991 - 1995), the Croat people showed their determination and readiness for the restoration and preservation of the Republic of Croatia as a self-governed, independent, sovereign and democratic state". According to the adopted amendments to the Constitution, the Croatian Sabor (parliament) has been renamed into the Croatian State Sabor. One of the most important changes to the Constitution refers to Article 135 which prohibits the establishment of an alliance between Croatia and other states which would or might lead to the restoration of a Yugoslav state community or some other form of Balkan state association. The amendments also contain several language changes, including the change of the name of the National Bank of Croatia into the Croatian National Bank. In some articles the word 'Republic' has been replaced with the word 'state', and in some the word 'Croatia' has been added to the word 'Republic'. In articles 14 and 35, which state that the Croatian Constitution guarantees all rights and freedoms regardless of race, colour of skin, sex, language and religion, the current term 'citizen' has been replaced with the term 'every man and citizen'. The amendments adopted today also erase from the Constitution Chapter IX - the Transitional and Final Regulations from the 1990 Constitution. The chapter includes regulations which were or had to be adopted because at the time of the adoption of the Constitution in 1990 Croatia was still formally and legally member of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ). With the adoption of the Constitutional Decision on Sovereignty and Independence on 25 June 1991 and the Decision on Severing All State and Legal Ties with the former SFRJ on 8 October 1991, those regulations had been fully consummated and ceased to be valid. The procedure for changing the Constitution was initiated by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, who on 28 October sent the lower house a Proposal on Amendments to the Constitution with a draft proposal on the Constitutional Law on Changes and Amendments to the Constitution. The constitutional changes were supported by all HDZ deputies, one independent deputy, two minority MPs, three deputies of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), one deputy of the Croatian Pure Party of Rights (HCSP), one deputy of the Action of Social Democrats of Croatia (ASH), one deputy of the Croatian Social-Liberal Party (HSLS), one deputy of the Croatian Christian Democratic Union (HKDU) and one deputy of the Croatian Slavonia-Baranja Party. Representatives of the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) abstained, as did two minority representatives. Representatives of the Social-Democratic Party (SDP), the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS), the Croatian People's Party (HNS), a majority of HSLS representatives, representative of the Serb People's Party (SNS) and one independent MP voted against the proposed changes. (hina) jn rm 122012 MET dec 97