The Slovenian Foreign Minister, Karl Erjavec, said on Wednesday he was satisfied with the oral discussion in Bruxelles, held over Slovenia’s complaint that Croatia was breaking the EU law by refusing to implement the arbitration ruling.
“Our delegation told me they were satisfied and that the European Commission (EC) led the meeting in an expert manner, asking expert questions,” Erjavec said for the Slovenian press agency STA.
“It became clear that the letter we sent to the Commission regarding that (Croatia’s refusal to comply with the arbitration ruling) was well based in expertise,” he said, adding that the EC representatives, in talking to both sides, aimed to find links between the EU law and Croatia’s decision to refuse to implement the arbitration ruling.
“Our representatives presented themselves as experts, and such were their answers to (the EC) questions, while the Croatia’s side did not present any new arguments in the meeting,” Erjavec said.
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Croatia presented “political arguments” by saying that “the arbitration ruling was non-existent” and therefore could not be implemented, he said, while Slovenia’s official position was that the procedure was not compromised to the degree which would prevent the final ruling.
By not implementing the ruling, Croatia was breaking the EU law as well as the arbitration agreement signed in 2009 by the then Prime Ministers Jadranka Kosor (Croatia) and Borut Pahor (Slovenia), he said, adding that the bilateral solution to the border issue could be found any more because, according to Slovenia’s position, the issue was “definitively” solved with the ruling.
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