Croatia will use all available legal means to protect its pilots, Justice and Public Administration Minister Ivan Malenica said on Monday, calling the proceedings in Serbia a politically staged attempt that could be a reason for blocking Serbia's accession to the European Union.

“The Croatian government has clearly stated that it will protect all its citizens, all its defenders, generals, and, in this case, pilots. Therefore, we will use all available legal means if such a moment comes,” Malenica said in a interview for RTL television.

This means that in this case, which refers to the pilots, Croatia will not allow that an international arrest warrant be issued, the minister said.

According to Malenica, this is one of the mechanisms and tools at Croatia’s disposal, although it is too soon to speak of specific legal moves, since Croatia has not received any information yet regarding the proceedings conducted in Serbia, and all that is being discussed is based on reports in Serbian media.

“Nothing official has come from Serbia yet. For now, we only have information from Vucic’s media. There is no official communication on this case,” the minister noted, adding that Croatia would do everything to protect its generals and “the dignity of the Homeland War.”

Commenting on the statements by lawyers of the injured parties that it is a lie that the rights of the Croatian pilots were violated because they didn’t have a chance to make a statement, Minister Malenica said these were “untruths”.

He pointed out that Croatia had conducted approximately 3,000 criminal proceedings related to war crimes and in the past year there were no unanswered subpoenas referring to Serbia.

He said that with regard to legislation, Croatia had clearly aligned itself with the European Union, “so the question is what Serbia is doing and whether it really wants to join the European Union.”

Malenica added that Croatia would employ all legal mechanisms at its disposal and insist on certain issues being resolved bilaterally.