"The President of the Republic has several times openly asked the Government to make public the Study of the Impact of the Druzba Adria Project on the Environment," reads a press release issued by the Office of President Mesic on Friday afternoon.
Mesic asked the publication as he felt the need to insist on that move after seeing "controversies which have appeared in the public as well as irresponsibility with which Deputy Prime Minister and the presidential candidate of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has politicised unnecessarily the issue of the Druzba Adria project for the purpose of her pre-election campaign".
"In its statement the Government says that there are segments of the Study that are classified as state secret. The Government is supposed to explain to which segments this refers and for which reasons they are classified as state secret, while this is not known to the President of Republic," the release from Mesic's office read.
In addition, the Study was handed over the the competent ministry in mid-July. "Why did the government wait for December to form a Commission for the Assessment of the Study and why was the first session of the Commission scheduled only in January," Mesic's office writes wondering whether all of this may be treated as manipulation of the public under the pretext of the protection of public interests.
"By its statement, the Government actually denies positions presented by Deputy Prime Minister (Jadranka Kosor) during the election campaign trail," the Office of the President said.
During Thursday night's television show on which all the 13 presidential candidates presented their views on a series of topical issues, President Mesic said he had asked for the publication of the study and that he did not know why the government was keeping it secret.
On Friday, the government responded saying that it believed Mesic gave such a statement for the purpose of his election campaign.
"Those allegations are not true. President Stjepan Mesic has not asked either the Government or the competent ministry to make the Study public. Besides, we regard his statement that the Government keeps secret the document as a malicious insinuation which we strongly condemn," read a press release issued by the Government's public relations office.
The Druzba Adria project envisages the integration of oil pipelines from Russia through several European countries to the Croatian Adriatic coast.