The chairwoman of the National Committee overseeing Croatia's European Union accession negotiations, Vesna Pusic of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), and the chairman of the Committee on Interparliamentary Cooperation, Milorad Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), said on Tuesday they saw no connection between Monday's decision by an Austrian court to extradite former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader and the expected closing of negotiations in the policy area known as Chapter 23, which deals with judiciary and fundamental rights.
Speaking at a press conference after meeting an International Monetary Fund delegation, both Pusic and Pupovac described as a coincidence the fact that a court ruling approving Sanader's extradition to Croatia was rendered ahead of the expected closure of Chapter 23.
Pupovac said he did not believe the court ruling had anything to do with the closing of Chapter 23, adding that there was no reason for politicians to speculate about further developments because it was a legal matter.
Pusic said she was confident that Sanader would get a fair trial in Croatia. She said that the decision by the Austrian court was based on the fact that "they finished what they had in connection with the situation and the suspicions in Austria."
Pusic would not comment on a media report that Hungarian police had asked the Hungarian state prosecutor to press charges against HNS leader Radimir Cacic for causing a traffic accident in Hungary in January 2010 in which two people had been killed.
Reporters were also interested in the views of the SDSS and the HNS on reports that the ruling coalition was apparently giving up its plan to redraw the boundaries of electoral districts.
Pupovac, whose party is a junior member of the ruling coalition, said that the ruling coalition had not discussed that initiative, put forward by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, for a long time because it was busy dealing with other matters, notably completion of EU membership negotiations and economic reforms.
Pupovac said that the ruling coalition was engaged in intensive discussions on how to ease economic hardships and bring the EU entry talks to completion. "The ruling coalition is focused on these two issues and we have received support from outside the coalition and from the president of the republic and we appreciate it. All else is out of our focus."
When asked if the idea of redistricting was abandoned at the urging of his party, Pupovac said that the SDSS had no need to exert pressure and that it was simply a case of what was the government's priority and what was not.
"It's a question of political wisdom, maturity and responsibility, because to open space for new conflicts is not rational politically nor is it in the interest of the government or the state now that we have renewed the consensus for Europe and have calmed some sort of a political conflict," Pupovac said.
Pusic said that the ruling coalition was not abandoning the idea of redistricting because of Chapter 23, but that it was simply a trial balloon released by the government. She said that the matter was part of electoral legislation whose changing in the election year would be unconstitutional.
