MP Vesna Pusic of the opposition Civic Liberal Alliance (GLAS) said on Wednesday that the decision by the Croatian Parliament to lease its premises to the European People's Party (EPP) for party meetings was unacceptable.
The EPP is organising an election convention in Zagreb on November 20-21 which is expected to be attended by over 2,000 delegates from 40 countries. The EPP leadership is due to meet in the Croatian Parliament on November 19, while the election convention, which will choose a new leader of the strongest political group in the European Union, will be held at the Arena sports hall in Zagreb.
“The fact that this Parliament has leased its Grand Chamber, the place of legislative authority and political pluralism, for a meeting of a European political party, the EPP, is absolutely unacceptable and a step in the completely wrong direction,” Pusic said during a debate in Parliament.
The Parliament Presidency gave its approval for the EPP meeting to be held in the Croatian Parliament in April. Several months later it decided that political groups in the European Parliament and international organisations may use the premises of the Croatian Parliament subject to payment of a fee, agreeing rental prices for such events.
Under that decision, a day’s rent for the Grand Chamber, where plenary sessions of Parliament are held, costs HRK 35,000, while other chambers may be rented out for between HRK 6,500 and 15,000.
The EPP has rented the Grand Chamber and another hall that costs HRK 7,500, so that the rental of the premises will cost it HRK 42,500, without other services such as technical support and catering.
Gordan Maras of the Social Democratic Party said that the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) “has privatised and politically degraded our Parliament.”
The HDZ’s Suncana Glavak said that such practice was not uncommon. “There have been such situations in the European Parliament, Lithuania, Denmark and Finland. The premises will be leased to the EPP for about HRK 75,000,” she said.
(€1 = HRK 7.43)
