Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic spoke on Friday in Brussels with the Slovenian caretaker Prime Minister Miro Cerar about the process of forming the new government in Slovenia and commented on the country’s decision to lift restrictions on Croatian workers as of July 1.

“Slovenia decided to lift restrictions on Croatian workers’ freedom of movement, and now only Austria still has these restrictions in place. In some other circumstances this would be a great success, but in the context of demographic revitalisation and population drain we don’t see it like that any more. In the last four months, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Slovenia have lifted these restrictions. We will now reciprocally lift restrictions for Slovenian workers,” Plenkovic said.

He added that he spoke with Cerar, as well as the majority winner of Slovenia’s parliamentary election Janez Jansa on the political situation in Slovenia.

Asked whether the possibility of Jansa becoming Slovenian Prime Minister would make resolving the border dispute between the two countries easier or more challenging, considering that both politicians belong to the European People’s Party, but Jansa is seen as being closer to the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, while Plenkovic is perceived as more of a centrist.

“As far as I’m concerned, I know what my stance is and that will not change. But, let’s first wait and see who takes over the government. Whoever is given the mandate, we will approach the negotiations in good faith. We think that is a much better way than pursuing legal means,” Plenkovic said.

Slovenia announced it would sue Croatia after the government is formed at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg for refusing to implement the arbitration border ruling.

Plenkovic said he expected that Croatia would offer new ideas in an attempt to resolve the issue bilaterally after Slovenia gets a new government.

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