` Bled Agreement With Croatia Is Misinterpreted`

Former Slovene PM Jansa warns that the agreement on international border arbitrage was one of the options, not the final option.

Former Slovene prime minister Janez Jansa said on Tuesday it is misinterpreted in Croatia that he and Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader agreed to let UN`s The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) decide on the border dispute between the two countries, adding it was just one of the options.

International arbitrage

- I heard several statements by the Croatian premier which suggest that we agreed to hand over the unsolved border dispute to the ICJ. There was no such agreement and it has never been presented – Jansa said, STA Slovene news agency reports.

The ICJ was mentioned as an option, only if the then founded inter-state committee for the preparation of arbitrage agrees on it, Jansa said, looking back on the Bled agreement in August 2007.

Following that meeting, the two premiers said the border issue would be handed over to “a third party”, perhaps the ICJ, and the inter-state committees would prepare arbitrage, which was supported by all political parties in Slovenia, with slight reserves.

The new Slovene cabinet, assembled after last year`s parliamentary elections, headed by PM Borut Pahor, pointed out on several occasions over the past few months that he expects the inter-state committee to present the options for solving the border dispute soon. It also emphasised that “a new start” was necessary, because Slovenia is blocking Croatia`s European Union accession negotiations over the border issue, and bilateral talks are desired, while the option of returning to the Drnovsek-Racan agreement from 2001 was open.

“Impression is that Slovenia is blocking Croatia for selfish reasons”

Speaking of the current Slovenian position concerning the border issue, Jansa reiterated that current PM Borut Pahor has created the impression that Slovenia was unrightly blocking Croatia by opening the unsolved border issue, while his government was wiser about it, STA reports.

- Recently ,the impression has been made that Slovenia is blocking Croatian EU negotiations for selfish reasons. There were attempts before, but they failed, because my government blocked the same negotiating chapters at the accession conference in October last year, since Croatia refused the good Slovene compromise. This is why it could not be used for publicity like it has been used now when the new cabinet has changed its approach – Jansa assessed.

In the end, Jansa marked the Croatian government as the “culprit” for the bloc of accession negotiations, explaining, it has not accepted the compromise he offered at the inter-governmental accession conference Croatia-EU in October.