Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, March 10 (CP) – Croatia has announced on Monday it was refraining from implementing the Protected Ecology and Fisheries Belt (ZERP) against EU countries. The news was announced by the president of the National Committee for Monitoring EU Negotiations Vesna Pusic.

This basically means that ZERP has been returned to what it was two months ago, a possibility which is not implemented.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, PM Ivo Sanader said that the ruling coalition had agreed that the implementation of ZERP was of national interest, but stressed that as far as the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) was concerned EU membership was more important, while the Croatian Peasants’ Party (HSS) had to decide for itself on this.

As soon as the news of Croatia’s decision reached him, the EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn reacted by saying such a decision would mean the lifting of an obstacle and this would give impetus to Croatian accession talks with the EU.

The President of the Council of the European Union, Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said upon learning of this that Croatia had signed an agreement regarding ZERP and it needs to adhere to what it had signed.

Croatia has announced the start of the implementation of ZERP for EU members as of January 1, 2008, but this stirred such reactions from Slovenia and Italy, as well as the EU and threats of talks on Croatia’s EU membership being all but halted that it decided to back down.