Zagreb - Croatian Parliament Speaker Željko Reiner, who is attending the conference of EU parliamentary speakers in Luxembourg, on Tuesday spoke about the role of national parliaments and interparliamentary cooperation in the EU.
Reiner informed his counterparts of the possibilities of strengthening the role of national parliaments within the framework of interparliamentary cooperation based on the example of the Croatian parliament's contribution over the past three years of Croatia's membership of the bloc. He underscored that the Croatian Sabor was the first national parliament to join in the decision-making process at the European level after the Treaty of Lisbon came into force. He also spoke about the importance of cooperation between national parliaments and the European Parliament in monitoring the activities of Europol.
Reiner conducted a bilateral meeting on the margins of the conference with the President of the German Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, and they concluded that political relations between the two countries were growing stronger and that Germany was Croatia's most important economic partner as well as that most of the tourists visiting Croatia came from Germany.
Lammert said that there was a lot of interest in Croatia in the German parliament and hope for Croatia to strengthen its position and influence in the European Union. He stressed the importance of intensive cooperation in specific areas where encounters between parliamentarians could make a big contribution. (Hina)