ZAGREB, Oct 3 (Hina) - The proclamation of an economic zone is the last card up Croatia's sleeve in the struggle to become a respectable partner in negotiating EU access, the president of the opposition Party of Rights (HSP), Anto
Djapic, said in parliament on Friday.
ZAGREB, Oct 3 (Hina) - The proclamation of an economic zone is the
last card up Croatia's sleeve in the struggle to become a
respectable partner in negotiating EU access, the president of the
opposition Party of Rights (HSP), Anto Djapic, said in parliament
on Friday. #L#
Outlining the HSP's two-year-old draft decision on the
proclamation of an economic zone in the Adriatic, Djapic said it was
inadmissible for the government to argue that such a proclamation
would preclude Croatia from getting European Union candidate
status.
"Quite the contrary, if we proclaimed the economic zone, Slovenia
and Italy, following their initial disapproval, would actively
advocate Croatia's entry into the EU, since that would be their only
way of continuing to use the riches of the Croatian sea," Djapic
said.
He told MPs that "we have the historical chance, at the very end of
the term, to show that we are sovereign and don't give in to
political blackmail".
Djapic dismissed the government's claims that the ecological and
fishing zone carried the same legal weight as the economic zone. As
an example, he said a country which proclaimed the former did not
have full control over the docking of ships carrying potentially
hazardous cargo.
(hina) ha sb