The festive season doesn’t halt neighbourly rifts as tensions grow…
As RTL reports on the 28th of December, 2017, Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec threatened Croatia with legal proceedings once again today if the country fails to agree to the arbitration decision on the Croatian-Slovenian border, which so far, Croatia has refused to recognise or implement.
Erjavec told reporters after a meeting with the Slovenian Prime Minister, Miro Cerar, that Slovenia would likely launch legal proceedings against Croatia in the spring if the country continued to oppose it.
”From Friday, from which the six month deadline for the agreement on the implementation of the arbitrators’ decision, Slovenia enters the phase of “real implementation” of the arbitration decision, and any violation of the arbitrator’s decision will represent a “violation of international law and the law of the European Union”, stated the head of Slovenian diplomacy.
According to him, Slovenia can, in that case, decide to launch legal proceedings against Croatia for what Slovenia considers to be a violation of international law, with reference to two particular articles of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Arbitration judgment is part of international law, Erjavec stated, and when it comes to implementing it, one cannot speak of a one-sided act, but of respect for international law.
“I expect from the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenković, to refrain from [engaging in] incidents and all actions [that go] against international law,” Erjavec said.
“As an EU member and NATO, Croatia must be forced to respect an international verdict that is part of international law.” he concluded.
