Bill on settlements resolves some but not most important problems, says Opposition

Zagreb - Parliament on Friday debated a bill on settlements which should improve and harmonise methods for determining their boundaries, marking the names of settlements, streets and squares and numbering houses, with the opposition saying the bill "resolves some issues but not the most important ones."

MP Anka Mrak Taritaš (Centar-Glas) recalled that the current law dated back to 1988, and served as the basis to name streets and squares. It is a technical law that needs to be harmonised with an entire set of other laws and improved, she said and warned that the bill did not include some solutions that already exist.

MP Arsen Bauk (SDP) believes the bill is "political and by no means technical." Even though he expressed his party's support to the bill in the first reading, Bauk said that support in the second reading would depend on whether the bill would be improved in the meantime, because "although it resolves a lot of issues, it doesn't resolve the most important ones".

Bauk believes that after 30 years it is necessary to resolve some issues and notes that under the current law it is possible to propose naming a street after Slobodan Milošević, which, he said, is unacceptable.

MP Urša Raukar Gamulin (Green-Left Bloc) proposed that the new law ban issuing a house number for illegally constructed buildings, which, she said, would discourage that practice in the future.

MP Veljko Kajtazi (Minorities caucus) said they would support the bill in the first reading with a proposal that streets in Roma communities carry the names of Roma individuals.

Under the bill, decisions on the names of settlements, streets and squares are adopted in line with a prior opinion of the government's commission for the standardisation of geographic names.

Author: Hina