Croatian prime minister Zoran Milanović has confirmed to the press that on Thursday in Vienna he met for about half an hour with Slovenian prime minister Miro Cerar, but he declined to say what were the topics of the meeting. “I have talked with my colleague Miro Cerar privately for half an hour. We talked, we didn’t negotiate. Our positions are clear, both theirs and ours, but it should not burden our good relations”, said Milanović in a statement after the end of the summit on the Western Balkans in Vienna, reports Jutarnji List on August 28, 2015.
It was the first meeting of heads of Croatian and Slovenian governments following the withdrawal of Croatia from the arbitration agreement with Slovenia due to the collusion of the Slovenian arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration and the Slovenian legal representative.
Currently, neither Croatia nor Slovenia have their arbitrators at the Court of Arbitration, and are waiting for the decision of the court president. Meanwhile, Slovenia insists that the process will still go on, regardless of Croatian withdrawal.
“We have clarified our positions and then we split up”, said after the meeting Slovenian prime minister Cerar, as quoted by Slovenian television. He added that he said to Milanović that “it is clear that the agreement is valid, that the tribunal continues to work and that we expect all countries to support the process, to comply with the agreement to the end, and that the final judgment will be made”. He also noted that there is a large number of like-minded stakeholders who believe that unilateral exit of Croatia from the arbitration agreement is not acceptable.
Slovenian foreign minister Karl Erjavec said that he expected the tribunal to continue with its activities and that Slovenia will implement its decision. The Slovenian and Croatian foreign ministers Erjavec and Vesna Pusić were both in Vienna at the summit with the leaders of the Western Balkans countries, but they did not discuss the issue.
