"I'm in quite a bad mood because of this decision, even though it's obviously a reaction to the unbelievably irrational behaviour of the Croatian government and prime minister," the president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party told reporters in Veliko Trgovisce.

He recalled that in June, when parliament amended a law to limit EAW application to crimes committed after August 2002, the HDZ warned about possible strong reactions from the European Commission.

"If someone thinks they said a historic 'no' to the European Commission, they are wrong. They got the time and the place wrong," Karamarko said, adding that Croatia was a sovereign state which willingly joined the EU and signed an accession treaty that it had the duty to honour.

"This not only casts a stain on Croatia as a country which cannot be trusted, this will materially damage Croatia too," he said, adding that if Croatia did not enter the Schengen area, it could lose EUR 80 million next year.

"The question is when we will join the Schengen regime and there is also the question of the Peljesac bridge, for which we might get funding in which the EU would participate if we entered the Schengen regime. Therefore, what else is there to say - a flippant government, a flippant prime minister, serious problems for Croatia. Governments go and this one will go very soon, but it will leave an unpleasant mark, a mortgage and material problems for our country," said Karamarko.