Slovenia wants Croatia to stop lawsuits against Ljubljanska Banka

Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec said in Brussels on Monday that the Croatian government, in return for the ratification of its EU accession treaty by the Slovenian parliament, should withdraw its power of attorney given to Croatian banks to sue the Slovenian bank Ljubljanska Banka before Croatian courts.

"It would suffice if the Croatian Minister of Finance withdrew the power of attorney for lawsuits against Ljubljanska Banka, which was issued in 1995 and in 2001," Erjavec told the press in Brussels on the margins of a meeting of EU foreign ministers when asked what he expected of Croatia after Ljubljana made the ratification of its EU accession treaty conditional on resolution of the issue of Croatian deposits with the now defunct Ljubljanska Banka.

According to Slovenian media reports, Erjavec said that Slovenia considered the ongoing lawsuits in Croatia against Ljubljanska Banka to be a problem, adding that it was a "two-track game" in which Croatia was saying it was ready to resolve the Ljubljanska Banka issue while at the same time it was insisting on lawsuits even though they should be treated as an issue relating to succession to the former Yugoslavia. "Slovenia finds that unacceptable," Erjavec was quoted as saying.

Slovenian media said that France Arhar and Zdravko Rogic, the Slovenian and Croatian financial experts appointed by their governments to consider the problem and propose a possible solution, should meet for the first time on Wednesday. (Hina)