ZAGREB, February 15, 2017 – European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in Brussels on Wednesday that the Commission was not saying who was right in the Croatian-Slovenian border dispute, while Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said it was not realistic to expect the implementation of the arbitration ruling.
We are not saying Slovenia is right or Croatia is right. The Commission is here to help. We want to help resolve this and I think we will be able to do so, Juncker told a press conference after meeting with Plenković, who had attended a working lunch with European commissioners.
Juncker recalled that he had said in the European Parliament last week that border issues in the Balkans would have to be resolved before membership aspirants joined the EU. It is a very complicated issue which people in Western Europe do not understand, nor did they ever try to understand this region, and not even the people who live there understand it, Juncker said.
Plenković said that Croatia had withdrawn from the arbitration process in 2015 for well known reasons and that its move had received the unanimous support of the Croatian Parliament. He said it was not realistic to expect of Croatia to accept the arbitration ruling. “What is realistic is for us to reach an agreement that would be acceptable both to Croatia and Slovenia,” he added.
Plenković said that Croatia had presented certain ideas to Slovenia and that the Croatian proposal was an excellent basis for an agreement. “At the same time, we don’t think taking unilateral steps is good and the worst thing is when the existing problem is affecting our citizens. I sincerely regret that and think that this should not have happened, and here I mean fines that were sent to fishermen. We did this to protect our national interests, but we do not feel comfortable in this situation. This time again, with the support of President Juncker, we invite my Slovenian counterpart Miro Cerar to sit down with our teams and try to find a solution that will be good both for Croatia and for Slovenia. I think both countries have important issues, and there are a lot of relevant and important items on the European agenda on which we have a common position,” Plenković said.
