Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic has said she does not expect any problems for Croatia from the European Commission or any European Union member-state over the newly-adopted amendments to the relevant Croatian legislation that limit the application of the European Arrest Warrant for crimes committed after 7 August 2002.
"I do not expect any problem. We will consult and talk with the European Commission about that," Pusic said in Brussels on Wednesday evening when a reception was held by Croatia and European Union presiding country Lithuania at the Council of the EU on the occasion of Croatia's accession and Lithuania's rotating presidency as of July 1.
Asked to comment on a statement by the chairman of the Bundestag committee on relations with the European Union, Gunther Krichbaum, that Croatia launched the procedure to adopt the disputable amendments after Germany ratified the Croatia-EU accession treaty and that this was not the way one should behave with friends in the EU, Croatia's minister said that her country had 27 friends in the EU.
"Croatia's friends in the EU are all 27 member-states," she said in that context.
"As for EU rules, Croatia, just as Germany, will have its positions and opinions and will discuss them on an equal footing with other members. In this particular case we will seek a solution in cooperation with the Commission and other members," Pusic said.
She went on to say that the limits to the EAW application is a "multilayered problem" given that Germany, as an EU old member, was eligible to introduce time limits to the implementation of EAW while newcomers since 2004 were not eligible for that.
