Former Slovenian Prime Minister, Miro Cerar, who will take over the post of Foreign Minister in the new Slovenian cabinet, said on Thursday that maintaining good neighbourly relations with Croatia and solving unresolved issues would be his top priorities in office.

Slovenia’s new centre-left cabinet, led by political newcomer PM Marjan Sarec, is expected to be formally confirmed in the Slovenian Parliament later on Thursday.

“As for the border arbitration with Croatia, we will insist on the same stance we have had so far, so, apart from initiating legal proceedings over (Croatia’s) violations of European laws, we will continue the dialogue, as I’m convinced there is still space to look for an agreement on implementing the arbitration ruling, on ways to implement it, which would be good for all of us – and also, which would serve as a good example to other countries in the region, primarily in the Western Balkans,” Cerar told reporters.

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Croatia does not recognise the arbitration decision as it had withdrawn from the process in 2015 because of a scandal which involved leaked tapes showing Slovenian government official discussing the case with the court’s judge.

“If two EU member countries – Croatia and Slovenia – can find a normal political or legal route to arrive to the solution to that issue, it would be very encouraging for others wishing to join the EU, because it would send a message that the rule of law is being respected… On the other hand, if Croatia does not respect the legal principles of rule of law and international law, that that sends a bad signal to the EU and the region,” 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, with Cerar’s outgoing government has filing a lawsuit at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg in July.

“This is very important, for the first time in history we have the border line solved. Now it just needs to be turned into reality, implement the ruling in the field. This requires participation of both countries, especially on the land part of the border. But, I repeat, both countries, as EU members, must respect international law, must have some loyalty to EU laws and international relations. And that’s what we will negotiate about,” he said.

“I’d like to emphasise, we must not use these disputes – which are also happening on other levels, such as the Ljubljanska banka dispute for example – to burden people, we must have good economic and culture cooperation, good neighbourly relations,” Cerar added.

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