Croatia May Soften Fishing Zone After EU Rebuff
Date: 12-Dec-07
Country: CROATIA
Author: Zoran Radosavljevic
"We want to join the European Union and it is difficult to imagine that the (zone) will be enforced in its current form," Mesic, who visited Brussels last week, told state radio.
Croatia, which hopes to become an EU member around 2010, is due to apply the zone, which covers roughly 56,000 square km, from Jan. 1 to preserve fish stocks and limit pollution. The plan is opposed by EU members Italy and Slovenia.
"I expect a compromise, a temporary solution until we join the EU. It is now important that experts agree on how to protect the Adriatic and regulate fishing quotas," Mesic said.
The European Commission warned Croatia last week against enforcing the zone, approved by Croatia's parliament, saying this would breach an earlier accord with Slovenia and Italy and harm Zagreb's bid to join the bloc.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country takes over the rotating EU presidency in January, said on Monday Slovenia was ready to block several chapters of Zagreb's EU negotiations if the zone was enforced.
"I expect all sides will sit at a table soon and reach a functional solution, which will satisfy all three countries and the fishermen," Mesic said.
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, who is negotiating a new coalition government after an inconclusive Nov. 25 parliamentary election, said he had "nothing to add to President Mesic's comments", an indicating a softer approach was possible.
Sanader is due in Brussels this week and will probably discuss the issue with his Italian and Slovenian counterparts, Romano Prodi and Janez Jansa.
Barring a new parliamentary decision to scrap or delay the fishing zone, only intensive diplomacy with Italy and Slovenia offers a way out of the dispute.
The Croatian Novi List daily quoted a senior official of Sanader's HDZ party on Tuesday as saying that was the plan.
"What we now need is prudence, nothing that could endanger our EU negotiations," the official said.
Political analyst Damir Grubisa said the experts had been aware of the problem for years but policy-makers were exploiting it for populist purposes at home, even though Croatia had no logistical means to enforce the zone properly.
"Now we can either agree joint protection of the Adriatic with Italy and Slovenia or implement our own zone but then inform the EU partners that it will not effectively apply to them," Grubisa said.
(Additional reporting by Igor Ilic, Reporting by Zoran Radosavljevic, Editing by Matthew Jones)
