ZAGREB, 30 April (Hina) - At the end of their three-day visit to Croatia, a three-member German parliamentary delegation held a press conference in Zagreb on Tuesday.
ZAGREB, 30 April (Hina) - At the end of their three-day visit to
Croatia, a three-member German parliamentary delegation held a
press conference in Zagreb on Tuesday. #L#
The delegation's head, Hartmut Koschyk, who is a
representative of the Christian-Social Union (CSU), said that the
German parliamentarians had very open talks with Croatian
government and parliament members, but also with Opposition members
and representatives of national minorities.
The German parliamentarians discussed with their hosts the
normalisation of relations with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia,
the reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area, bilateral
relations and the final admission of Croatia to the Council of
Europe at the next ministerial meeting, Koschyk said.
'Croatia's final admission to the Council of Europe is closely
linked with the fulfillment of 21 requirements that Croatia
accepted', Koschyk said.
No one should wonder at the requirements set by the Council of
Europe, Ulrich Irmer, representative of the German liberals in the
German and European Parliaments said.
Those conditions had to be met if Croatia wanted to reach
standards of other Council of Europe member-countries; similar
requirements had to be fulfilled by some other countries (Bulgaria,
Rumania, Russia, Slovakia), Irmer stressed.
The decision of the German liberals to vote for Croatia's
admission at the Parliamentary Assembly session of 24 April had
been considerably influenced by the requests of the Croatian
liberals.
Georg Pfannenstein, representative of the Social-Democratic
Party (SDP), said that the support of the German social-democrats
had been influenced to a considerable extent by their talks with
the Croatian Social-Democratic Party.
Asked to comment on the invitation to the Croatian Opposition
representatives to visit Germany for talks, Hartmut Koschyk said
that this was part of regular political activities. He added that
he was glad to see that the Croatian Government members share the
same view.
Asked to comment on the latest event in Zagreb - the
dissolution of the Zagreb City Assembly, Koschyk said that the
event might speed up the local elections and lead to a referendum
on the separation of state functions of the prefect (who in many
countries is named by the state president) and the mayor, who is in
charge of local problems. Koschyk said that German and European
parliamentarians would closely monitor the development of the
situation in Zagreb.
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