Brussels, 23/08/2013 (Agence Europe) - Croatia had until midnight on 23 August to explain why Croatian legislation infringes legislation on the European arrest warrant.
“The European Commission has still not received a reply to Vice President Reding's letter of 29 July to the Croatian authorities. We are waiting until the deadline that has been set”, said Mina Andreeva, Reding's spokesperson, on Friday.
Three days before becoming a member of the European Union on 1 July, Croatia amended its national legislation relating to the European arrest warrant by adopting the Perkovic law, according to which crimes committed before August 2002 cannot be subject to the European arrest warrant. Critics believe that this law aims to prevent the extradition to Germany of a former head of the Croatian police, Josip Perkovic, who is suspected by the German judicial system of being involved in the murder of a Croatian opponent in the 1980s. This law is “incompatible with” the provisions on the European arrest warrant and the Commission continually stresses Croatia's obligation to put an end to this infringement to the European law, Andreeva said (our translation throughout).
If Zagreb does not reply to the Commission's request, the new EU member state opens itself up to sanctions, among which could be the establishment of a specific monitoring mechanism or the suspension of European funds to Croatia.
On Wednesday, during an interview on the national HTV television station, Croatia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Vesna Pusic gave assurances that Croatia was going to come into line with the European regulation, although the deadline of Friday could not be respected. (MB/transl.fl)