A Regional Meeting of the RECOM Coalition in Zagreb

63 representatives of member organizations of the RECOM Coalition from all post-Yugoslav states took part.

Žarko Puhovski, RECOM’s Public Advocate in Croatia, took the opportunity to raise the issue of the RECOM Statute’s “core principles”, to be defined by the Coalition, so that the advocates would have clear guidelines about the minimum standards to adhere to in the course of their public advocacy for the RECOM Initiative. In his assessment of this new advocacy phase, he said the following: “As the entire RECOM Process begins to shift to political levels, it starts to lose substance, but gains power. The loss of substance will primarily manifest itself in political demands for changes to our Statute Proposal. With respect to any potential amendments, it is up to the Coalition to define what the “core principles” are, that is, what has to stay in the Statute, and which issues could allow room for compromise, if necessary.” The Coalition concluded that the “core principles” of the RECOM Statute Proposal would be discussed at the next meeting of the RECOM Coalition, scheduled for February of 2012.