Erjavec expected more from meeting on Ljubljanska bank issue

LJUBLJANA, Sept 20 (Hina) - Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec said on Thursday he had expected more from the second meeting of Slovenian and Croatian financial experts appointed by the two governments to solve the issue of Ljubljanska Banka's debt to its former Croatian depositors.

Speaking to the press, Erjavec said he expected France Arhar of Slovenia and Zdravko Rogic of Croatia, who met in Zagreb on Tuesday, to find a solution more swiftly.

He said Arhar had proposed some options that "are evidently not acceptable" to Croatia.

Erjavec said that, contrary to information appearing in Croatia, he had information that the Bank for International Settlements in Basel was willing to mediate in the dispute, adding that if Arhar and Rogic did not find a bilateral solution by year's end, it would mean that such solution was not possible.

"We continue to think that it's a succession issue ... and that Croatia should honour the commitments undertaken by its previous government that it would be solved as part of succession (to the former Yugoslavia). The Croatian government should withdraw the powers of attorney it gave to Privredna Banka Zagreb and Zagrebacka Banka," he said.

Slovenia's now defunct Ljubljanska Banka has been sued at Croatian courts over a part of the foreign currency savings of its former Croatian clients that was paid to them in Croatia by transferring their claims into Croatia's public debt.

Regarding the ratification of Croatia's European Union Accession Treaty, Erjavec said Slovenia wanted Croatia to join the EU as soon as possible, but that the ratification of the treaty in Slovenia would be decided by parliament and that an acceptable solution should be found to the Ljubljanska banka issue.