The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) announced on Friday that it does not have jurisdiction to rule on a Slovenian case against Croatia over alleged infringements of European law resulting from Croatia's resfusal to implement a border arbitration ruling, the Luxembourg-based court stated today.
The decision on non-jurisdiction means that Croatia’s arguments are accepted and further proceedings cease automatically. Rulings handed down by the CJEU are final and accnot be appealed.
Slovenia had brought its case against Croatia invoking EU treaty law which orders respect for the rule of law and loyal co-operation between member states, as it claims that Croatia’s refusal to accept the 2017 border arbitration ruling is in breach of EU law.
The arbitration, which was an attempt to solve a decades old dispute between the two former Yugoslav states which are now EU members, concerns the exact demarcation of their land and sea border. Both countries agreed to the arbitration prior to Croatia’s EU membership in 2013.
However, in 2015 Croatia withdrew from the process over of a scandal involving leaked tapes which showed that a Slovenian government official had contacted and discussed the case with the court’s judge. In spite of Croatia’s withdrawal, the court made a ruling in 2017, which Slovenia considers binding for both parties.
Croatia, on the other hand, keeps insisting that the arbitration had been irreversably tainted by the scandal, and does not recognise the ruling. Successive Zagreb governments have called Slovenia back to the table to settle the dispute through bilateral negotiations.
Stoga ponovno pozivam Sloveniju na dijalog i bilateralne pregovore kako bismo došli do obostrano prihvatljivog i trajnog rješenja graničnog pitanja.
— Andrej Plenković (@AndrejPlenkovic) January 31, 2020
Upon hearing the news on Monday, Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic again called on Slovenia to renew negotiations, tweeting “Again, I invite Slovenia to join the dialogue and bilateral negotiations, in order for us to reach a permanent solution for the border issue (which would be) acceptable to both sides.”
