Radovan Karadzic, Sarajevo is not your city, and you have no right to say that it is, just as you do not have the right to say in public, even if it’s in court, that someone has dug up bones around Bosnia and brought them to Srebrenica to make a fake graveyard. This is insulting.
Croatia Postpones Fishing Zone
| 13 March 2008 |
The country’s Parliament adopted amendments to ZERP that state the zone will not be applied to EU members beginning March 15.
But the bill passed only by a whisker and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader accused the opposition of using the move to topple his government.
“The opposition did not vote for the proposal not because it is against Croatia’s European aspirations, but because of internal reasons. They realised that one coalition partner will not support the government’s proposal and they tried to bring down the government, but they did not succeed. We got 77 out of 153 votes, which is 50 percent plus one. This was sufficient and that was democracy,” Sanader told reporters during a visit to Brussels.
The amendments were only supported by the votes of Sanader’s Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, and two other coalition partners, while one of them, the Croatian Peasant Party, HSS, voted against them. The HSS said this would not affect its position in the coalition.
The Social Democratic Party, SDP, and the Croatian People's Party, HNS, abstained from voting with some exceptions.
They have refused to comment on Sanader’s accusations.
ZERP regulates an area of sea in Croatia’s territorial and international waters in the Adriatic and came into force at the beginning of this year. Zagreb says the zone is intended to preserve fishing stocks and reduce pollution.
But Italy and Slovenia say the area has to be shared between the three countries and accused Croatia of breaking EU regulations.
Slovenia has been using its clout as current holder of the EU Presidency to block Croatia's accession bid.
Following parliament’s approval of the amendments, the European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barosso, said Croatia could expect an acceleration in accession talks and expect to join the EU by 2010. Read more: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/8575/
