The Slovenian government asked the European Commission on Monday to take part in the efforts to settle a Slovenian-Croatian dispute that concerns the Croatian clients’ savings deposits in the Zagreb branch of the now defunct Slovenian bank Ljubljanska Banka.
In a letter to the EC President, Jean-Claude Juncker, and other senior EC officials, the Slovenian government said that the continuation of legal proceedings before Croatian courts concerning the dispute was contrary to the European and international law.
“The government has asked the European Commission to mediate in the case concerning the transferred foreign currency savings deposits. Slovenia has been maintaining from the start that this is a succession issue that should be dealt with as part of talks on succession (to the former Yugoslavia).
According to the 2014 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, Slovenia must reimburse the clients of the Ljubljanska Banka. The bank had not repaid the savings of some 300,000 clients across the former Yugoslavia after its branches have closed in 1991, and the debt amounted to some €385 million.
According to Slovenia, the debt belongs to the old Ljubljanska Banka, and its successor, the Nova Ljubljanska Banka is not obligated to take on the debt.
The 2014 ruling does not refer to the transferred savings, and the opinion of the Croatia’s Supreme Court is that the Nova Ljubljanska Banka is the universal legal successor of the Ljubljanska Banka. There are dozens of court proceedings in Croatia against Slovenia, the old Ljubljanska Banka, and Nova Ljubljanska Banka.
“Contrary to obligations that have been assumed, court proceedings have continued in Croatia, causing financial harm to Ljubljanska Banka and Nova Ljubljanska Banka. Since the EC already had an active role in the signing of the Croatian-Slovenian memorandum on Ljubljanska Banka in Mokrice, Slovenia expects the Commission to accept the request for mediation,” the Slovenian government said.
The Slovenian government maintains in its letter to the EC that Slovenia has met its obligations from the Mokrice memorandum signed before Croatia’s accession to the EU by the then Prime Ministers, Zoran Milanovic of Croatia, and Janez Jansa of Slovenia, thus making it possible for Croatia to join the EU, while on the other hand Croatia has not fulfilled its obligations, which has resulted in the continuation of legal proceedings against Ljubljanska Banka and Nova Ljubljanska Banka before Croatian courts.
The Slovenian government says that four such cases have resulted in final verdicts, of which three were to the detriment of Ljubljanska Banka and Nova Ljubljanska Banka, and that it had to address the EC after Croatia failed to respond to the repeated calls to ensure that the cases against Ljubljanska Banka were dropped.
The Croatian side said that the memorandum signed in the Slovenian border town Mokrice in 2013 meant that the court proceedings would be temporarily paused, but not dropped completely.
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