ZAGREB, June 18, 2018 – European Commission spokesman Margiritis Schinas said on Monday that the Commission had decided to stay out of the Slovenia-Croatia arbitration conflict and not to give its opinion on Slovenia’s claim that Croatia violated the European Union law, urging the two neighbouring countries to find together a solution to their border dispute in a friendly manner.
Article 259 of the Treaty on the EU does not impose on the European Commission any legislative obligation to make public its report. In the previous eight cases of this kind, the Commission has published its reports only in four of them. We stick to our well-known position that a solution should be sought by our two member-states and the Commission is willing to help them, the spokesman Schinas said.
The said article requires that EU members refer an issue to the Commission first, prior to filing a suit against another EU member before the Court of Justice of the EU.
On 16 March, Slovenia submitted a letter to the Commission, proposing a suit against Croatia over its failure to comply with the border arbitration ruling, contending that Croatia was in breach of the EU law. Thus, a three-month deadline expired today for the Commission to possibly give its opinion on Slovenia’s plan to sue Croatia before the Luxembourg-based EU Court of Justice over non-implementation of the 29 June 2017 arbitration ruling on the border demarcation.
Before one member state can instigate proceedings against another, it must first put a proposal to the Commission, which has three months to reply. The Commission can accept the proposal, in which case it takes over the suit. If it rejects the proposal or does not reply, the member state can file a suit at the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Croatia refuted Slovenia’s complaints in a letter to the Commission on April 17.
On 29 June 2017, the Permanent Court of Arbitration delivered a ruling in connection with the two countries’ border row. In late July 2015, the Croatian parliament adopted a decision to withdraw from the arbitration agreement that the two countries signed in 2009 and made a recommendation to Slovenia to commence negotiations on an alternative way to resolve the border dispute. Zagreb found the process contaminated after it was discovered that Slovenia’s agent Jernej Sekolec and an official in the Slovenian foreign ministry Simona Drenik had discussed Slovenia’s arguments in the process and lobbied with other arbiters. Sekolec and Drenik resigned from their posts as a result.
Croatia said that it had walked out of the arbitration processes due to the contamination by Slovenia but that it was still open to talks on this dispute in a bilateral format or before an international legal institution.
