Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said on Tuesday that the government was interested in making public as soon as possible Croatia's EU accession treaty, dismissing claims by a Croatian daily that the treaty envisaged the restriction of the rights of Homeland War veterans.
"As far as the government is concerned, we would have posted the text of the treaty on the government's web site already last Saturday," said Kosor during a visit to a business zone in Varazdin County.
She added that work on translating the treaty into Croatian and EU languages was being completed and that she believed that the document would be made public very soon.
The government wants all citizens to be able to read the treaty, see its every detail and think about it, particularly because it is to be signed very soon, followed by a referendum which we want to be successful, she said.
Asked if she knew when the treaty would be signed, she said a date had not been set yet.
Asked if it was true that the treaty envisaged a reduction of war veterans' privileged pensions, as claimed by Vecernji List daily, Kosor said that the paper was lying and misinforming the public.
In no moment were veterans' pensions the subject of any negotiations, because every country has the right to protect in a special way certain groups of its citizens, she said.
Veterans who are not disabled do not have any special benefits but shares in the Veterans' Fund and that won't change either, she said.
She added that there had not been any special requests from the European Commission and the EU regarding the status of war veterans or the law regulating their rights.
