Slovenia sent Croatia a protest note on Tuesday over a Croatian court's decision that Slovenia's Ljubljanska Banka has to pay the principal and interest on transferred Yugoslav-era foreign currency savings in one of the dozens of such cases under way in Croatia.

According to the April 10 ruling, the defunct Ljubljanska Banka’s Zagreb branch and the Nova Ljubljanska Banka must pay €222,426 in principal as well as interest and legal costs in one of the cases, Slovenia’s Foreign Ministry said.

The verbal note delivered to the Croatian Embassy in Ljubljana says the continuation of the legal proceedings was a violation of international agreements between the two countries, such as the agreement on succession to the former Yugoslavia, as well as the 2013 Mokrice Memorandum, signed before Croatia’s accession to the EU by the then Prime Ministers Zoran Milanovic of Croatia and Janez Jansa of Slovenia.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2014 that Slovenia must reimburse the clients of the Ljubljanska Banka. The bank had not repaid the savings of some 300,000 clients across 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.

Slovenia said the memorandum should have resulted in a suspension of legal proceedings over Yugoslav-era savings that were transferred from Ljubljanska Banka to Zagrebacka Banka and Privredna Banka Zagreb in Croatia and paid out to Ljubljanska Banka’s former clients. The two Croatian banks are claiming reimbursements from Ljubljanska Banka.

The Foreign Ministry note said Slovenia has asked the European Commission to mediate in those proceedings and that it expected Croatia to agree to this.

The ministry said it expected Croatia to refrain from any proceedings contrary to the succession agreement and the Mokrice Memorandum, and that there would be no seizure of Ljubljanska Banka or Nova Ljubljanska Banka assets, as that would be contrary to international and European Union law.

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