Slovenia’s outgoing Prime Minister and future Foreign Minister in the new coalition government led by Marjan Sarec of the centre left LMS, said in Slovenian parliament on Tuesday that, as a Foreign Minister, he will advocate the continuation of Slovenia’s foreign policy, including Slovenia's stance on the border dispute with Croatia.

Slovenia is claiming that Croatia is in breach of EU law by refusing to implement the arbitration ruling determining the land and sea borders between the two countries, which was reached in June 2017.

Croatia does not recognise the arbitration decision and has withdrawn from the process in 2015 because of a scandal which involved leaked tapes showing Slovenian government official discussing the case with the court’s judge.

“We will not depart from our stance,” Cerar said, adding that he advocates good relations with all neighbouring countries, including dialogue with Croatia, but that there can be no talk on the essence on the arbitration ruling, which needs to be implemented.

“Slovenia fulfilled its obligations from the arbitration agreement and has begun implementing the ruling, which Croatia still hasn’t done,” Cerar said.

By refusing to accept and implement the ruling, which Slovenia sees as the definitive solution to the border dispute, Croatia is in breach of international law, and, according to Slovenia, European law, which is why the outgoing government has filed a lawsuit at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg, Cerar said, adding that even if the Luxembourg court dismisses Slovenia’s lawsuit, it will not bring into question the legitimacy of the ruling.

Cerar said he would be satisfied if Croatia would recognise and implement the ruling before CJEU decides whether or not European law was violated, and that he did not want to rule out possible future meetings with Croatia on the issue.

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