The Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday it ties the payment of the cost of a case it lost against Croatia before the EU Court of Justice to the amount Croatia owes it for the cost of the border arbitration lawsuit.

Responding to an article run by the Croatian Vecernji List daily, which reported that the Slovenian government has repeatedly ignored calls from the government in Zagreb to pay the cost of the lost case, the Slovenian ministry said that Croatia owes Slovenia a much higher amount for the border arbitration lawsuit.

The EU Court of Justice has rejected the Slovenian lawsuit against Croatia for the alleged breach of EU law and failure to implement the border arbitration ruling. The lawsuit was filed by the government of former Prime Minister Miro Cerar at the end of its term, but the court threw it out saying that it lacked jurisdiction to rule on the dispute.

The court ordered Slovenia to cover the legal costs for Croatia and invited the two parties to settle their border dispute bilaterally.

The amount in question is €150,000.

The Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they are not ignoring the call to pay the legal costs, but tying it to the demand that Croatia pay for half of the cost of the border arbitration procedure.

Croatia had withdrawn from the arbitration process insisting that it was irreversibly compromised by Slovenia’s actions, after which a tribunal continued the process regardless. Slovenia paid for the costs of its work on its own.

Slovenia continues to argue that Croatia should implement the border arbitration award, even though its withdrawal was unanimously approved by the Croatian parliament, and insists on the division of arbitration costs.

Slovenia will pay legal costs to Croatia over the lawsuit before the EU Court of Justice, but it sees this matter as part of the procedure to implement the border arbitration award, the Slovenian ministry said as quoted by STA news agency. Slovenia has called on Croatia several times to implement the arbitration award, it added.

The Slovenian ministry said that the matter of costs incurred during the arbitration process should also be settled.

In 2015, the Court of Arbitration dismissed Croatia’s intention to unilaterally withdraw from the arbitration process compromised by Slovenian interference in the process, after which Slovenia ensured that the tribunal completed the process. The Slovenian ministry said that the cost of the court’s work until the conclusion of the case was €800,000 and that the court ordered both countries to share this cost in equal proportion.