Croatian MEP Karlo Ressler (HDZ/EPP) on Wednesday called for the European Commission's reaction to Serbia's Cultural Heritage Act which appropriates Croatia's cultural heritage, that is Dubrovnik's literature, which Serbia claims "belongs to both Serbian and Croatian cultures."

The Serbian National Assembly recently adopted the Cultural Heritage Act in which it openly appropriates Dubrovnik’s literature and underscores its allegedly dual, Croatian and Serbian, belonging. The contentious law was sponsored by the Serbian Ministry of Culture and Information, which is headed by Maja Gojkovic, one of the founders of the Serbian Radical Party and a former deputy prime minister in Slobodan Milosevic’s government, Ressler’s office said in a press release.

Ressler said that was an obvious attempt to appropriate Croatia’s cultural heritage and he has informed Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi and Culture Commissioner Mariya Gabriel. Ressler called for Croatia’s heritage, as a member of the EU, to be protected and for a review of Serbia’s compliance with obligations under Chapter 26 – Education and Culture – in its EU accession negotiations.

Serbia’s authorities have been “perfidiously implementing a hybrid version of Serbia’s policy towards its neighbours from the 1990s”. If Serbia does not free itself and its people of “such poisonous reflexes,” it will distance itself more and more from the European Union and European civilisation,” Ressler underscored in the press release.