The two parties said in a joint statement that the situation had changed considerably since June 2004, when the parliament postponed the implementation of the zone to include EU member-states, namely that Italy and Slovenia declared their own environmental protection zones in the Adriatic and the European Commission stated that it would not negotiate with Croatia the signing of an agreement on fisheries partnership, which was set as a condition to cancel the postponement of the application of the zone to EU countries.
The EU signs such agreements only with countries which are not EU candidates, which the Croatian government should have known at the time it proposed the postponement, Friscic and Racan said.
The third reason for cancelling the postponement is to avoid a situation that would fail to encourage an agreement of all Adriatic countries on multilateral measures of environmental protection of the Adriatic and protection of the fishing stock, and to avoid a situation where there is lack of control of fishing in the zone by EU member-countries.
The decision to start applying the zone also to EU member-countries should be accompanied by relevant conclusions to be adopted and implemented by the government, the two parties said.
Inspection and protection services should be set up to ensure the implementation of the fishing and environmental components of the zone, and Croatia's arguments in favour of cancelling the postponement should be explained to the EU and the European Commission, the parties said.
They also urged signing bilateral agreements on fishing quotas and fees for fishing boats from EU member-countries, adopting non-discriminatory measures of fisheries policy and regulations for fishing boats from the EU, and reducing as much as possible the risk of negative repercussions of the decision to implement the zone on Croatia's negotiations on membership in the EU.