Relations between Croatia and Slovenia could be better.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec said he expected strong pressure from the European Commission on Croatia, after Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković’s recent speech at the UN in which he accused Slovenia of not complying with international law, reports Index.hr on September 24, 2017.
Plenković said in his speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday that Croatia had to leave the border arbitration proceedings with Slovenia because Slovenia had compromised them, warning that such “non-compliance with international law” would discourage other states from settling disputes with the help of third parties.
The Slovenian Foreign Minister said that, after Plenković’s speech, “it is evident to every Slovenian that dialogue with Croatia is impossible.”
“The arbitration agreement was signed under the aegis of the European Union. European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans offered his help if there was no agreement with Croatia on the implementation of the arbitration decision. I think our next step will be to inform him about what happened in New York,” said Erjavec in an interview with the Slovenian public television.
He added that the European Commission had a number of instruments to ensure that states which do not respect the rule of law are persuaded to behave differently.
“We know what the EU is doing with regards to Poland about the judicial reform implemented by its government. The European Union can freeze European funds to countries which behave in such a manner, but I think that, in the case of Croatia, a stern phone call to Zagreb will be enough,” said Erjavec.
According to him, Croatia’s cooperation is necessary for the arbitration decision to be implemented, although Slovenia can “achieve some things alone,” by adopting laws in the Parliament which were announced by Prime Minister Miro Cerar for later this month.
Due to Plenković’s speech, Cerar has cancelled a scheduled meeting with Croatian Prime Minister in Zagreb on Wednesday. They were supposed to discuss the resolution of the Croatian-Slovenian border dispute.
Ljubljana believes that the arbitration decision is the final solution for the dispute which should be implemented, while Zagreb is seeking a new bilateral solution to the border dispute that the two states have been burdened with since the collapse of former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
Translated from Index.hr.
