ZAGREB, March 25 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivo Sanader met parliamentary deputies of the Serb Independent Democratic Party (SDSS) Milorad Pupovac and Vojislav Stanimirovic on Thursday for talks on the implementation of an agreement
between the government and the party.
ZAGREB, March 25 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivo Sanader met parliamentary
deputies of the Serb Independent Democratic Party (SDSS) Milorad
Pupovac and Vojislav Stanimirovic on Thursday for talks on the
implementation of an agreement between the government and the party.#L#
"The implementation of the agreement is encountering certain problems
on the ground, and today's meeting has solved all the dilemmas,"
Sanader told reporters after the meeting.
The prime minister recalled that at its session in Osijek the
government had appointed a commission, led by Gordana Turic, to
implement the agreement.
Sanader said that Turic would make sure that the most important point
of the agreement -- restitution of illegally occupied property to
their rightful owners -- was implemented by the agreed deadline of
June 30, and that the commission was instructed to find alternative
accommodation for illegal occupants.
Pupovac said that the fact that the government had transferred its
powers to the commission to step up its work and that it was closely
cooperating with local authorities and interested organisations
guaranteed that the important elements of the agreement would be
implemented in time.
Pupovac said that they were given assurances that all applications for
reconstruction that had been filed by a prescribed date would be
granted before the end of April, and that about 500 housing units
would be given back to their rightful owners before the end of June.
He added that there was a possibility of one housing unit being
jointly used by the owner and the present occupant.
Pupovac went on to say that the government and his party agreed that
it was in the interests of the Serb community for Croatia to promptly
receive a positive opinion from the European Commission on its
application for EU membership.
"In this regard, I would like this opinion of citizens of Serb
ethnicity to be clearly separated from the necessity to step up the
pace of efforts to address the said outstanding issues," he said.
(Hina) vm