Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec threatened Croatia on Monday with a lawsuit before the European Court in Luxembourg if it does not cooperate in implementing the disputed arbitration ruling on the border between the two countries.
Leaders of the three parties in the ruling coalition agreed at a meeting in Ljubljana that Slovenia should expedite the adoption of laws for the implementation of the ruling, begin exercising its sovereignty in the Bay of Piran, and consider a lawsuit against Croatia.
>>> Cerar: The arbitration ruling should be implemented by December 29
“Slovenia insists on implementation. In the coming weeks, I will prepare information for the government on legal options for how to react given that Croatia does not respect the arbitrators’ ruling,” Erjavec told reporters after a closed meeting.
“We are talking about the possibilities of lawsuits, for example at the EU Court in Luxembourg,” added the head of Slovenian diplomacy.
While Zagreb does not consider the arbitrators’ decision binding due to the contamination of the process and seeks to resolve the open issue bilaterally, Ljubljana claims that the ruling has become part of European law and that Croatia, as an EU member, must respect it.
The leaders of the ruling coalition concluded that the process of adopting laws in parliament should be expedited to adjust the situation at the border in accordance with the arbitrators’ ruling.
>>> Erjavec: We will inform the EC about 52 unilateral actions by Croatia that violate Slovenian sovereignty
These are laws in the area of internal affairs that will be “adjusted to the borders determined by the arbitration decision,” said Erjavec, president of the Democratic Party of Pensioners, the second strongest party in the ruling coalition of Cerar’s Modern Centre Party and the Social Democrats of Dejan Židan, the Minister of Agriculture.
Erjavec and Židan are also deputy prime ministers, and at the meeting, they supported Prime Minister Miro Cerar’s decision not to go to Zagreb for a meeting with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković due to his speech at the UN last week in which he accused Slovenia of violating international law.
“Dialogue with Croatia will be possible when Croatian politics is ready to talk about implementation; before that, such dialogue makes no sense,” emphasized Erjavec.
Prime Minister Cerar did not make a statement after the meeting, but according to Erjavec, he said that the Slovenian police should increase activities in the Bay of Piran, which the arbitrators awarded to Slovenia, thus protecting Slovenian sovereignty.
In addition to Plenković’s speech, the Slovenian minister says it was provocative that at the entrance to the hall where the Croatian delegation hosted a reception in New York, there were promotional materials depicting the Savudrija Bay or the Bay of Piran as if the arbitration ruling had never occurred.
“The map in the tourist brochure about Croatia was at the entrance to the hall, and anyone could take it and look at it. On the map, the border is marked in the middle of the bay, which I perceive as a provocation,” said Erjavec.
