"Croatia should immediately stop violating border ruling"

In the letter to Croatian state officials, a group of Slovenian lawyers called for Croatia to stop violating the arbitration decision and start abiding by the basic values of European Union, the most important of which is the rule of law, reported Slovenian state broadcaster RTV Slovenija.

They are concerned about the continuing incidents, mainly in the Piran bay, but also about the war of words which “has a bad effect on neighbourly and diplomatic, as well economic, legal, and cultural relations,” one of the signatories, Marko Pavliha, said.

He said he was surprised by the unusual silence from the European Commission.

“The problem has obviously stagnated to the point where the president of the European Commission sees no need to say this out loud. However, the EC will have to act soon given that they only have three months to make a decision, before Slovenia files a lawsuit before the Court of Justice of the European Union. This kind of restraint shows that EU is not strong enough. The president of the EC keeps repeating that the EU is also the union of law, but on the other hand says that this is a bilateral problem between Slovenia and Croatia. This is a completely politicised paradox. What is really a matter of expertise is now being politicised on the European level and that is not good,” Pavliha said.