Croatia's negotiator for this chapter Miroslav Kovacic said on Monday that Croatian representatives informed the European Commission of the adjustments of Croatian laws to that of the EU in the telecommunications sector.
"We've established that we are highly adjusted and that some regulations are yet to be adopted, while some needed to be amended which we plan to do by 2008," Kovacic said.
Tuesday's meeting focused on the media legislation. "We talked about the Croatian Radio Television's (HRT) Programmes Council, Hina's Steering Council and the Electronic Media Council. The European Commission was interested whether out legislation ensured the independence of those councils," Kovacic said.
Asked what the European Commission wanted to know about regulatory bodies in the public media, Kovacic said that "screening was a technical part of the negotiations, with an emphasis on the legislation. They were interested in our media legislation and the appointment procedure for the HRT Programmes Council, Hina's Steering Council and the Electronic Media Council."
A member of the task force for this chapter, Croatian Journalists' Association President Dragutin Lucic, said that the issue of Hina's Steering Council was brought up in the context of regulatory bodies in the public media.
Lucic said that on Monday met his counterparts from the International Federation of Journalists and the European Federation of Journalists Money Carleyem and Marc Gruber and talked about the appointment of Hina's Steering Council.
"They are observing the situation in Croatia and they even offered to organise protests on behalf of Hina outside the premises in which the screening process is taking place, but I did not think that this was appropriate at the moment because I am not here in my capacity as president of the Croatian Journalists' Association bit s a member of the negotiating team