Slovenian Parliament Confirms Submission for Arbitration

Members of the Slovenian Parliament voted on Monday at an extraordinary closed session in favor of the arbitration submission in the form proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec after the session.

He expects that the documents outlining Slovenia’s arguments in the border dispute with Croatia will soon be sent to the Arbitration Court by the Slovenian government, thus meeting the set deadline.

As reported by the Slovenian Press Agency STA, the proposal to confirm the submission without ‘minimal amendments’ that were considered, which allegedly aimed for a more ambitious approach to defining the subject of the border dispute, was supported by a large majority in Parliament. Seventy members voted in favor of confirming the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ proposal, which was advocated by Minister Karl Erjavec, and only a few members of the Slovenian People’s Party (SLS) voted against it.

Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec stated that he is pleased that a two-thirds majority was achieved regarding the arbitration submission, dispelling doubts that it was not well-prepared and needed to be changed.

Judging by his evening statement to national media, Prime Minister Janez Janša was also satisfied, as he had recently been attributed a desire to ‘minimally supplement’ the proposal defining the border dispute with a proposal from former president of the Slovenian People’s Party (SLS) Marjan Podobnik and his lawyer from Koper, Danijel Starman.

With today’s decision by Parliament regarding the subject of the dispute before the arbitration court, Slovenia has maximized the existing maneuvering space within the Arbitration Agreement, Janša said, adding that by accepting additional positions, the representatives strengthened Slovenia’s position in the arbitration. This gives hope that Slovenia will succeed in the arbitration on the most important point related to the dispute, Janša assessed after the closed session of Parliament, as reported by the media.

This refers to a special statement that Parliament adopted along with the arbitration submission, expressing Slovenia’s expectations from the arbitration court. The statement indicates that Slovenia expects the arbitration to confirm the ‘territorial contact’ of its territorial waters with international waters, as it had such contact during its independence.

If this is not confirmed by arbitration, Slovenia would consider that the arbitration has not fulfilled its mandate, which also follows from some points of the Arbitration Agreement. Slovenian media generally assess that this is a statement without real effect, made to calm the debates that have been ongoing among the main political actors in recent days, which even threatened the possibility that Slovenia would request an extension of the deadline for submitting the submission, which expires next Monday.