European Consumer Protection Commissioner Neven Mimica said in Zagreb on Friday night that the dispute between the European Commission (EC) and Croatian government over the law relating to the European Arrest Warrant, colloquially known as "Lex Perkovic", was over and that the entire affair had been overemphasised in the Croatian public and that this is just one in hundreds of similar disputes that the EC has to deal with with other European Union (EU) member states every month.
"For me the story of the European Arrest Warrant is finished with the agreement between the government and the EC and with the government clearly taking on its political commitments on the manner and time to adjust to European legal acquis", Mimica said for the national broadcaster's HTV news service.
Commenting on EC Vice President Viviane Reding's announcement that she will continue monitoring Zagreb to ensure that the agreement with Brussels is kept, Mimica said that this was a usual matter of caution.
"That attitude responds to the principle of caution that often prevails in the EC. It refers to monitoring that will continue over the next few weeks until the Sabor adopts the law and until it is published", said Mimica who is Croatia's first European commissioner to have been appointed since Croatia joined the Union on July 1.
He believes that this refers to a procedure that in Croatia was perceived to be a huge problem of not respecting European legal order by a new member. "This is just one of 200 cases that the EC has on its agenda every month and wishes to undertake measures toward member states that are not applying some sections of the legal acquis. This is not an exceptional case", in Mimica's opinion.
He underscored that now there was no point on elaborating on European sanctions against Croatia however, he said, that had it come to taking the vote on them, he would first request certain legal basis for the measures that would be intended and the appropriate relevance of the measures on par to the "violation".
"I am not certain that at the time the EC began to advise member states of the intention to introduce measures against Croatia that there was a good explanation of the intention to introduce the measures relating to suspending funds for Croatia's accession to the Schengen regime", said EC Mimica who is currently on an official visit to Zagreb.
Asked what he thought about Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic's comment that had he been in Mimica's place he would have abstained from voting on the measures against Croatia, Mimica said that every commissioner has to have a clear stance on every issue and procedure does not foresee the possibility of abstention.
"The EC's work is very collegial, decisions are adopted based on a majority opinion that results from the presented stances and not by a raising of hands", said Mimica.
