Milanovic said he felt he needed to inform Barroso about the latest developments concerning differences in the interpretation of the enforcement of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) between the competent Directorate-General of the European Commission and Croatia regarding the sovereign equality of EU member states.

This is not a matter of Croatia not being ready to implement the EAW, but of different interpretation of the right of each EU member state to full equality in relation to the other members. When it comes to the EAW, that unfortunately is not the case, Milanovic wrote in his letter, which was posted on the government's website.

Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding asked Croatia on July 29 to explain its position on the matter, which Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic did in his letter on August 26. In that letter Miljenic informed Reding about the current state of enforcement of the EAW in Croatia, which has already enforced 19 of 119 orders received, according to the Prime Minister.

Milanovic noted that some member states had put in place permanent time limits on the enforcement of the EAW, adding that Croatia was particularly concerned about the fact that the EAW was not being enforced equally throughout the EU and that citizens of the member states were treated differently in the same legal situations, which he said was leading to legal insecurity.

The Prime Minister said he would not have addressed the Commission President at this stage had we not been shocked yesterday by the statement of Vice-President Reding's spokeswoman, who told Hina that criminals suspected of murdering Croatian dissidents in other EU countries during the communist regime can continue hiding behind Croatia's borders.

She threatened sanctions and the application of Article 39 of the Accession Treaty, concluding that the Croatia's actions represented a serious breach of EU law. If that was so, a significant number of member states would be in the same breach, the Croatian PM wrote.

Unfortunately, I need to seek your protection as President of the European Commission and an explanation as to how it is possible that one EU member state is being directly accused of protecting communist murderers and criminals, Milanovic said.

Milanovic said that his government had been trying for months to assemble a parliamentary majority to lift the constitutional statute of limitations on politically motivated murders so that surviving perpetrators could be brought to justice.

Since both you and I know well that spokespersons do not speak on their own behalf, I am additionally concerned about the language used by the spokeswoman of Vice-President Reding which is identical to that of the Croatian political opposition. I want to believe that it was an unauthorised statement made without the Vice-President's knowledge, Milanovic said.

Croatia has a long history of good, substantive and partner-like dialogue with the Commission and there is no reason why it should not be that way in this matter as well. I am confident that such dialogue must be conducted through direct contacts between competent officials and services of both parties and as little as possible in the public domain, the PM said.

Milanovic concluded by saying that Croatia had always honoured its commitments and would continue to do so in the future. At the same time we also expect understanding for Croatia being interested that the same rules should apply to all member states in the same way. Likewise, Croatia expects to be treated by Commission members in a manner that befits the established form of dialogue between the Commission or the Council and a member state, he said.