The Commission expects Croatia as a credible candidate country to commit to its obligations and not to take unilateral moves regarding ZERP. This is the point and this is not a linguistic debate about which word to use to describe Croatia's obligations, spokeswoman for the European Enlargement Commissioner, Krisztina Nagy, said in Brussels on Tuesday.
During his recent visit to Zagreb, Commissioner Ollie Rehn had warned that it would not be good for Croatia to unilaterally decide to activate ZERP and that a possible unilateral decision could cause problems.
I understand that the Government is in a difficult political situation regarding the parliamentary discussion of the matter. However, every unilateral declaration of the zone would be an act of breach of an agreement from July 2004, Rehn said on that occasion.
Rehn's statement triggered off different interpretations and speculations namely that Croatia had not signed any agreement but only harmonised minutes.
The minutes were a result of a meeting of state secretaries of Croatia, Slovenia and Italy on 4 June 2004 in Brussels.
Under the minutes, Croatia notified its neighbours - EU members Slovenia and Italia - of its parliament's decision that EU member states are not covered by the implementation of Croatia's ZERP until Zagreb and the European Community reach an agreement on partnership in fisheries.
The spokeswoman said that Croatia's obligation in this regard was explicitly mentioned in the European Council's conclusions from June 2004, when Croatia was granted a candidate status.