"If we abide by the law, let us abide by the law, and I am in favour of the equal application of laws to everybody. Also, if a crime falls under the statute of limitation, the legislation on the statute of limitation should be applied, no matter to whom it concerns," Mesic told reporters on Saturday during a gathering of sympathisers of the Balkan brotherhood and Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito at Bundek Lake in Zagreb.

A deadline by which Zagreb was expected to reply to the European Commission's question about when it plans to align Croatia's law on the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) with European legislation expired at midnight on Friday, but no information as to whether a reply has been sent to Brussels could be obtained at the Justice Ministry by 2 pm Friday. In late June, Croatia passed a law dubbed Lex Perkovic whereby it limits the application of the EAW to crimes committed after August 2002.

In a letter to Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic at the end of July, European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding wrote that what Croatia did on June 28 by amending said law was not in accordance with European legislation and that it should be corrected. On Thursday, Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said there was still no formal decision on the matter but that she expected the law to be changed soon.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic insists that the European Arrest Warrant is an exception as it is applied differently in old members of the Union and entrants after 2002.

PM Milanovic said in an interview with the national television (HTV) recently that there was that rule in the European Union which he found to be "twisted" and "discriminatory against countries".

The Croatian law on judicial cooperation in criminal matters with EU member states provoked plenty of criticism from the opposition and a share of the public as well as dissatisfaction from the European Commission over the regulation which limits the warrant to crimes committed after August 2002.

The opposition dubs the legislation adopted by the governing majority in the Croatian parliament on 28 June as "Lex Perkovic", as they believe that the time limits for the application of the EAW were introduced by the government in a bid to prevent the extradition of former Yugoslav intelligence agent Josip Perkovic, a Croatian national wanted in Germany on charges of having masterminded the political killing of a Croatian dissident in Bavaria in 1983.

Opposition members that criticise the government for trying to prevent Perkovic's handover, note that Perkovic's son Sasa Perkovic is a security advisor to the incumbent Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and was also an aide to Josipovic's predecessor Stjepan Mesic.

The EAW Framework Decision came into force on 1 January 2004 and it envisages that the time frame for the restriction of EAW implementation can be shifted to 7 August 2002 as the last deadline. On 7 August 2002, the European Framework Decision which established EAW, came into force.