Podobnik: Piran Bay Was Never Yours

Marijan Podobnik said on Otvoreno show that Slovenia would agree to arbitration if the border is set near Pula.

If Croatia should insist on arbitration to solve problems of the border and oppose Slovenia’s exit to the sea, Slovenia will not support it on its way to the EU, said Marijan Podobnik of the Slovene People’s Party on last night’s airing of Otvoreno on a Croatian network. 

Advisor to Slovene President Janez Drnovsek Ivo Vajgl, Tonino Picula and Gordan Jandrokovic and Podobnik discussed the problem of the Croatian-Slovene border on the show. The Croatian government suggests that international arbitration should be used to solve the problem, since all bilateral attempts have been exhausted, but the Slovene side is not accepting such a solution to the problem. Vajgl stressed that arbitration was not a magic wand, while Podobnik was much more blunt.

-- You even changed the name of Piran Bay to Savudrija Bay and the Piran Bay was never yours. The Slovenes will accept arbitration, but then the border will be near Pula. We should not stick our heads in the sand and accept the fact that Slovenia has not got an exit to the open sea, something to which we always had the right – said Podobnik.

Host Mislav Bago concluded that the problem of the Croatian-Slovene border would remain unsolved for a long time. The results of a telephone referendum that asked whether viewers believed that Slovenia would aggravate Croatia’s accession into the EU, most viewers replied that it would.