He said Croatia could forget about tourism and fishing in the 10 years it would take the Adriatic Sea to clean itself if even one tanker sank.
Tadic recalled that the agreement was signed in December 2001 to greenlight the linking of the 1,200 km pipeline extending from Samara in Russia to the Omisalj terminal in Croatia.
He said Croatia should back out of the project because it was the only signatory to the deal which bore the risk of transporting oil by sea, and because the Adriatic was a shallow and closed sea, which made the risk of pollution, including from ballast waters, extremely high.
Tadic labelled as ridiculous the claim that if Croatia abandoned the project, the oil would go to Trieste, Italy.
He said the revenue Croatia's Janaf pipeline would generate from the Druzba-Adria project was fixed and would amount to a maximum USD80 million annually, with profits amounting to only USD10 million. He added that if this was the reason for taking part in the project, this amount could be earmarked from the national budget and the Adriatic would not be endangered.
Tadic also said that each signatory to the agreement could back out without consequences if this was announced 12 months in advance.
The Government said the HSP initiative was premature. Its representative Vladimir Vrankovic said a study of the project's impact on the environment was being prepared for discussion.