The Slovenian Prime Minister, Miro Cerar, said on Tuesday he has not ruled out the possibility that Slovenia might block Croatia’s acceptance into Schengen if Zagreb did not agree to implement the arbitration ruling on the two countries’ border dispute.
Speaking to the press after the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) summit meeting in Slovenia, Cerar said the (Slovenian) government insisted that the refusal to implement the arbitration ruling was a violation of the rule of law, and that countries like that could not be accepted into the Schengen Area.
At the same event, the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, said that Slovenia did not choose the right path by announcing lawsuits against Croatia over the border issue and a dispute regarding the transferred savings of Croatian clients in the now defunct Slovenian bank Ljubljanska Banka. He added that the moves such as the possible blocking of Croatia’s entry into the Schengen Area were not good for the solution of those issues.
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Plenkovic said that Croatia would meet the technical conditions to enter the Schengen area by 2020, and that it was in Slovenia’s best interests for that to happen as soon as possible because it would make it easier for Slovenia to control its external borders, and stop illegal immigration.
Croatia does not recognise the 2017 border arbitration ruling, claiming it was compromised after a scandal involving leaked footage which showed an official in the Slovenian government discussing the case with a judge of the court.
Also, there are dozens of court proceedings against the Slovenian Ljubljanska Banka in Croatia over the debt which must be repaid to the Croatian clients of the bank after it has closed its Croatian branch in 1991. Slovenia claims that the proceedings are in violation of the EU law, because the new Nova Ljubljanska Banka was not required to take on the debts of the old bank.
“It is critical for Slovenia to react to all these cases in the right way. In case of mediation or appropriate agreements regarding the arbitration with the help of the European Commission, a new process will start in terms of getting closer to a solution. However, if there are no appropriate reactions, Slovenia will have to take legal action in both cases,” Cerar said.
