Slovenian President Borut Pahor said on Monday that he had informally met with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic on Sunday in Ljubljana, where they discussed bilateral relations and outstanding issues between the two countries.
“We agreed it was necessary to continue the dialogue,” Pahor said in an interview with Slovenian state broadcaster RTV Slovenia on Monday evening.
Pahor added it was their role as presidents to continue the dialogue and confirm friendly relations between Slovenia and Croatia on the presidential level.
That is a good message to send at a time when Slovenia is insisting on the implementation of the arbitration border ruling, determining the land and sea border between the two countries, which Croatia does not recognise, he said.
Croatia is offering to continue negotiations on the border issue between the two countries.
On the subject of privatisation of Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) and commitments Slovenia had made to the European Commission (EC) in that regard, Pahor said that the best time for the sale of the bank had already passed. He would not comment on the decision by the caretaker government of Prime Minister Miro Cerar that three quarters of its shares whould nevertheless be privatised.
Partial sale of NLB shares was demanded by the European Commission, as part of EC’s approval of State aid of over €2 billion in 2013.
Asked to comment on the fact that nearly two months after its parliamentary election, Slovenia still does not have a new government, Pahor said that a new, early election would be a bad solution.
He added that a government without the winner of the June election, Janez Jansa, whose centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) had won the relative majority of 25 seats in a 90-seat parliament, would also be a bad solution, because that government would be unstable and therefore unable to tackle the challenges the country might have to deal with in the next few years, as a consequence of worsening economic and political circumstances in region and the world.
Jansa turned down the role of Prime-Minister designate last week, after he was unable to form the necessary parliamentary majority.
Pahor said that Slovenia now needed a “robust, strong and stable” government which would reflect the election results, and that requires additional effort and political inclusion.
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