The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) rejected Croatian media claims that it spent money from the former Yugoslavia’s state accounts in the 1990s, Belgrade daily Politika said on Friday.

Croatian media reported earlier this week that Zagreb is demanding 148.5 million Dollars from Belgrade, claiming that the money belongs to Croatia under the agreement on succession of the former Yugoslavia. According to Zagreb daily Vecernji List, there was a total of 645.55 million Dollars in Yugoslav state accounts but that Serbia informed the successor states before the succession talks began that there was just 56 million Dollars in them.  

“Claims that Serbia approved the spending or spent joint funds from the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s have no basis in evidence nor in logic since Serbia was under the sanctions of the international community at the time,” Politika was told by the NBS.  

The Serbian central bank said that the succession agreement says that only available funds will be divided and that the amount mentioned in Croatian media is “the accounting balance determined by all successor states”. According to the NBS, most mixed banks were bankrupt when the agreement was signed and “it was clear that the accounting balance would not be met” but that a total of 107 million Dollars was divided from four mixed banks “disproving the claims of 56 million Dollars”.  

It added that the Croatian media reports are groundless pressure due to the unrealistic expectations of the Croatian side before the meeting of the permanent mixed committee on succession which met in Zagreb on Wednesday.