ZAGREB, February 1 – Fines issued by Slovenia to Croatian fishermen in Savudrija Bay are a logical move against those who violate international law, while Croatian fines issued to Slovenian fishermen make no sense, Slovenian Ambassador Smiljana Knez said in Zagreb on Wednesday.
Slovenian police have started to issue fines to Croatian fishermen for fishing in the part of Savudrija Bay which was awarded to Slovenia under a border arbitration ruling which Croatia does not recognise. Croatia has told its fishermen not to pay the fines and has responded in kind against Slovenian fishermen.
Knez believes that the Slovenian authorities made “a logical move” while the countermeasures by Zagreb “make no sense”.
“When we realised that Croatia would not honour the arbitration ruling and when Croatian fishermen, directly encouraged by their government, started to cross the demarcation line, the only right way was to issue fines,” Knez said. “On the other hand, it is not clear to me why Croatia is issuing fines because there are no legal grounds for that,” she added.
Slovenia insists that the arbitration ruling should be implemented and is threatening Croatia with a lawsuit before the Court of Justice of the European Union unless it implements the ruling. Croatia, on the other hand, wants the long-standing border dispute to be settled through bilateral talks after it withdrew from the arbitration process in 2015 because Slovenia compromised it.
