CROATIAN DELEGATION PARTICIPATES AT COUNCIL OF EUROPE PARLIAMENTAR

PARLIAMENTAR $ Y ASSEMBLY SESSION STRASBOURG, Jan 26 (Hina) - The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly is to begin its winter session in Strasbourg on Monday. A Croatian Parliament delegation will also be present at the session. The Parliamentarians are to vote on a draft resolution within the framework of the post-Dayton process which mostly concerns the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina in a lesser degree and Croatia is mentioned only a few times. Croatia has not been placed on the agenda as a special item because in the act of accession into the Council of Europe, Croatia had received a deadline of one year to ratify certain conventions and agreements. The deadline expires in November 1997 and in the meantime, Croatia will participate in discussions concerning various other issues. As the process of admitting new member countries into the Council of Europe is almost at an end, the Parliamentary Assembly should establish a new committee whose task would be to follow the fulfillment of commitments taken on by countries at the time of their accession into the Council of Europe. The Parliamentary Assembly is expected to set up sanction mechanisms for countries who do not fulfill their commitments, starting from suspension of the rights of parliamentary delegations to participate in the work of the Assembly, to the possibility of the Parliamentary Assembly to recommend the Council of Ministers to take away a country's membership. The Croatian delegation is headed by Deputy President of the Croatian Parliament Zarko Domljan. (hina) lm 261414 MET jan 97