Press release concerning the documents published on the Slovenian MFA’s official website

1. The Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Slovenia are two friendly and neighbourly countries that share the same European values and standards, and it is in that spirit and based on full respect for the international law, equality and mutual interests that they should solve the remaining open issues. The basis for the solution of these issues is a truthful, objective and correct review of the past negotiations on the maritime border and the debt payoff by Ljubljanska Banka – Zagreb branch, which is not the case in the abovementioned Positions. The Croatian MFAEI deems unnecessary and inappropriate that Slovenia should use its EU and NATO membership to condition or put pressure on a neighbouring friendly country. Linking and conditioning the border issue, as stated in the Positions, with the solving of other outstanding issues runs contrary to the international standards and further burdens the relations. Furthermore, it is unacceptable that Slovenia’s continental shelf and ecological zone, proclaimed in opposition to the international law, should be included in the Slovenian side’s starting points for the solving of the interstate sea border. That act runs contrary to the international law and is legally void. The Croatian MFAEI wishes to remind that it was as early as April 1993 that Slovenia confirmed through its own legislature (The Memorandum on Piranski Bay) that it is a state in a geographically unfavourable position and cannot proclaim its maritime zones.

2. Because of the Slovenian side’s position on the conditional connectedness between the sea border issues and other outstanding issues (Ljubljanska Banka’s debt payoff, nuclear power plant Krško, the presence of Slovenian soldiers on the Croatian national territory at St. Gera), these issues remained unsolved for years and burdened the mutual relations.

3. In the last 15 years, since gaining their independency, the two countries attempted to solve the interstate border issue through a series of bilateral negotiations and mediations. Negotiations failed to yield a solution. The MFAEI wishes to reiterate that there are no legal documents that would represent a supposed compromise concerning the sea border and support the baseless position that Slovenia has “retained” is territorial contiguity with the open sea. The proposition to reopen the negotiations based on the 2001 negotiations is objectively unrealistic. The Republic of Croatia remains firm in its position that this issue can be solved solely by obeying the international law, the UN Charter and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Wishing to open to way to further enhancement of mutual relations by solving the sea border issue, in October 2005 the Croatian Government officially proposed to the Slovenian side a joint and obliging submission of the interstate sea border issue before an international legal body. The MFAEI wishes to remind that the Slovenian side as early as April 2004 publicly accepted such a solutions, as was confirmed by Slovenian President Janez Drnovšek at the Central European Summit in Zagreb, October 2005.

4. The MFAEI rejects the claims about a one-sided approach and the attempts to prejudice a final solution of the land and sea border issues, which is, among other things, proven by the consistent adherence on the Croatian part to the Joint Statement on the Avoidance of Incidents, especially refraining from any moves or measures that would change the existing situation along the border.

5. The issue of Ljubljanska Bank – Zagreb main branch paying off its Croatian depositors is an issue of the private legal relations between Ljubljanska Bank and its depositors. The MFAEI, therefore, does not consider it to be an issue of the ex-Yugoslavia succession process. The matter is to be decided on by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

6. The MFAEI wishes to suggest to the Slovenian side that the relevant Croatian and Slovenian bodies open preparation talks in order to reach an agreement on the joint and obliging appearance before an international legal body to solve the maritime interstate border. Both countries’ parliaments should oblige to accept that body’s ruling.