CROATIAN GOVERNMENT DRAFTS BILL ON WAR VETERANS' RIGHTS

ZAGREB, Nov 28 (Hina) - The Croatian government on Thursday sent several bills to parliament for consideration, including a bill regulating the rights of Croatian war veterans and their families. In explanation of the bill, Deputy Prime Minister Ljerka Mintas-Hodak said that it encompassed a number of regulations which were currently in effect. The bill envisaged an audit of disability allowances, special care for the children of killed veterans and stimulation of the employment of disabled veterans, she added. Another bill was a price control bill whose measures would be applied only exceptionally and would be of limited duration. The proposed measures included direct price control, price monitoring, and the setting of guaranteed prices of agricultural products. The government also sent to parliament draft amendments to the Election of Pariamentary Deputies Act, opening the possibility of deputies freezing their mandates if they hold another office which is incompatible with that of a member of parliament or in case of a long illness or absence from the country. The draft amendements also proposed that deputies elected from special lists, i.e. deputies without permanent abode in Croatia, should not at the same time hold an executive or judicial office in a country they come from. The government supported a bill preventing a conflict of personal and public interests during service as a government official. The bill was proposed by Vladimir Seks of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party. The government said that the bill contained a number of legal shortcomings, but emphasized that the adoption of such a bill would be in the interest of the government and the moral integrity of each of its members. (hina) vm jn 282008 MET nov 96