The response, received through Croatia's permanent mission in Brussels, contains information that all allegations and facts from the Ministry's letter with objections will be forwarded to the Office of the European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, the Croatian ministry stated on Saturday.
On Friday morning, the Croatian ministry sent an objection to European Commission deputy spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen for describing the Croatian president's statement about Italian WWII victims as "inappropriate", while at the same time refusing to comment on the language used by the Italian president.
In a speech last week, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano ascribed the responsibility for Italian victims at the end of the Second World War in the former Yugoslavia to "Slavic bloodthirsty hatred" and "aspirations for annexation".
The speech prompted a response from Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, who said that "it is impossible to overlook elements of open racism, historical revisionism and political revenge-seeking" in Napolitano's statement.
Asked to comment on those statements, European Commission deputy spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen said that Mesic's response was "inappropriate" but declined to comment on Napolitano's statement, saying the next day that her comment reflected the position of the European Commission.
The Croatian ministry said in a letter it was unusual for a European Commission spokesperson to be commenting on statements by a head of state, adding that Ahrenkilde Hansen's statement had additionally complicated the already sensitive issue.
The ministry said that President Mesic had to respond to the unacceptable statements about some historical aspects of Croatian-Italian relations.