The Croatian Ministry of Justice issued a statement on Monday evening after the Office of European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding said earlier in the day that Croatia was hiding several criminals suspected of murdering Croatian emigrants in another European country during the communist regime, noting that the problem of prosecuting persons suspected of politically-motivated murders was much broader than issues relating to the application of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW).
The Ministry said that Croatia "is not the only EU member state that has a time limit in the application of the European Arrest Warrant," citing Austria, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic, and added that the EAW was obviously an instrument that was not applied in the same way within the EU.
"The problem of prosecuting persons suspected of political murders is much broader than issues relating to the application of the European Arrest Warrant," the Ministry said. "The Government of the Republic of Croatia has recognised the extent of this problem, as evidenced by the current initiative to amend the Constitution so as to remove the statute of limitations on political murders," it added.
In this regard, the Ministry said that it was highly inappropriate of European Commission officials to criticise a member state by presenting "such incorrect and unfounded claims."
It should be noted that Article 39 of the Treaty of Accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union states that denial of access to EU funds requires the existence of "serious shortcomings" in the transposition of the acquis communautaire, which is not the case here at all because five EU members already have a time limit similar to Croatia's, the Ministry said.
In late June Croatia passed a law, dubbed Lex Perkovic, limiting the application of the EAW to crimes committed after August 2002. Reding sent a letter to Croatian Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic in late July saying that what Croatia had done on June 28, by amending its EAW law, was in violation of European legislation and should be remedied.
European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said on Monday that the European Commission had not received an answer from the Croatian Ministry of Justice regarding the EAW law even though the deadline for it had expired on Friday, noting that steps would be taken against Croatia.
The European Commission deeply regrets that Croatia has failed to respond to that urgent call, that Croatian national legislation was changed only days before the country's accession to the EU and that it is contrary to the EU law on the European Arrest Warrant, which is not an unimportant matter, Andreeva said.
