Regarding yesterday’s press release by Slovenian Foreign Ministry

Regarding yesterday’s press release by the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating that the consultations on the implementation of the Protected Ecological Fishery Zone (ZERP) are not underway and concerning the implementation of the Croatian Parliament’s decision from 15 December 2006, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration would like to remind that Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader sent a public invitation to the prime ministers of Italy and Slovenia, as well as the representatives of the European Commission, to continue in the quadrilateral format and on an agreed level with the negotiations on the implementation of ZERP, i.e. problems concerning its implementation in Italy and Slovenia.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration would like to reiterate that it is a legitimate, economically and ecologically useful and necessary decision, aimed at protecting the natural and biological wealth of the Adriatic and ensuring the equality of all those engaged in economic fishery, in the spirit of the EU Fisheries Policy and in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the international practice, including similar decisions individually and independently reached by the EU members.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration would also like to point out that the relevant Croatian Parliament’s decisions on the expansion of Croatia’s jurisdiction in the Adriatic contain provisions stating that they in no way prejudice a final solution of the sea border between Croatia and Slovenia, which the Croatian Government is willing to prove in a special statement. The Ministry also expects the continuation of joint activities on the implementation of the agreement by the two countries’ prime ministers to submit the border issue to the International Court in the Hague, reached on 26 August 2007 in Bled.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration is convinced that yesterday’s press release by the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not represent a rejection of the invitation to continue the negotiations.