"Croatia will urgently take the necessary steps to swiftly and unconditionally align the law on judicial cooperation in criminal matters and to be fully aligned with the Framework Decision on the European Arrest Warrant for all crimes, independently of when they were committed, by removing the time limit which prevented its application to crimes committed before 7 August 2002," Miljenic told reporters after a meeting with Reding.
The law is expected "to go into force as soon as possible, by 1 January 2014 at the latest. The going into force and application of amendments will not be limited by any conditions," he added.
The European Commission welcomes the steps Croatia has taken to make sure that all criminals are brought to justice. In this context, a swift, efficient and unconditional alignment of the law on the application of the European Arrest Warrant in accordance with the European acquis communautaire will make it possible to act on all demands for the extradition of suspected or convicted criminals within the European Arrest Warrant system, independently of the date when the crimes were committed, said Reding.
Asked if this meant that the Commission would not stop the procedure, launched last week, that could have resulted in sanctions against Croatia, she said this would be decided when Croatia changed the law.
We asked for the member countries' opinions and they have until October 5 to reply. The minister said Croatia would swiftly and unconditionally change the law. We will follow this process and when the law is passed, we will evaluate if it conforms to its original version and then decide on further steps, including the termination of the procedure, said Reding.
Last week, the Commission began consultations with member countries on the activation of a safeguard clause from Croatia's EU accession treaty because three days before joining the EU on July 1, Croatia amended its 2010 EAW law by including a time limit under which the EAW would apply only to crimes committed after 7 August 2002, which is in contravention of the acquis.
Minister Miljenic said the constitutional changes Croatia was embarking on to lift the statute of limitations on all first degree murders was not related to this EAW alignment.
"We are changing the Constitution because we want to lift the statute of limitations on all first degree murders and that's not related to this process. We have many cases of politically motivated murders in the past, including during the communist regime. We want to deal with that because we don't want those people to have the statute of limitations as protection."
Asked if the constitutional changes could lead to a situation in which a person wanted by another country could be tried in Croatia instead of extradited, Miljenic reiterated that those things were unrelated. "All the requests made of us will be honoured and the constitutional changes have nothing to do with it."
Reding said the time limit was an important issue that was dealt with under the laws of the country in which the crime was committed.
Those are very complex issues which the judicial authorities should view case by case. From the discussion we had, it is clear that the Commission will welcome everything that Croatia does to improve the efficacy of the European Arrest Warrant and that anything Croatia does to reduce the efficacy of that instrument will not be appreciated, said Reding.
After Croatia-EC relations deteriorated because of the acquis breach, Croatia expressed willingness to amend the contentious law and enforce it as of 1 July 2014, but this was unacceptable to the European Commission.
When the Commission launched a procedure against Croatia, diplomatic activity and contacts intensified to prevent the imposition of sanctions. On the day the Commission announced the possible sanctions, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic spoke on the phone with Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. They agreed to do everything to prevent the sanctions, after which Croatian representatives were constantly in contact with the Commission.