Slovenian FM and expert for Ljubljanska Bank hold talks

Slovenia's Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec has said that he will propose a meeting of Slovenia's and Croatia's financial experts, France Arhar and Zdravko Rogic, named by their respective governments to help them in dealing with the Ljubljanska Banka issue, in the last week of August before Erjavec is to meet his Croatian counterpart Vesna Pusic.

After his meeting with Arhar in Ljubljana on Wednesday, Erjavec said that he would send a letter to Foreign Minister Pusic proposing that the two experts should meet before he and Pusic met at a international energy forum, set for 2-3 September in the Slovenian lake-side resort of Bled.

According to Erjavec, today's talks between him and the Slovenian expert focused on "technical and logistic issues" pertaining to the dispute stemming from a debt of the now-defunct Ljubljanska Bank to Croatian clients.

Slovenia insists on tackling this dispute within a package of issues regarding the succession to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), and makes the ratification of Croatia's European Union Accession Treaty conditional on this matter. Slovenia demands that Croatia withdraw powers of attorney given to Zagrebacka Banka and Privredna Banka Zagreb to continue lawsuits against Ljubljanska Banka, filed by those two Croatian banks, before Croatian courts over unpaid deposits of Croatian clients with Ljubljanska Banka, which were transferred into public debt.

On the other hand, Croatian politicians insist that it is necessary to separate the Ljubljanska Banka issue from the ratification of the Croatia-EU treaty and that powers of attorney have nothing to do with the ratification of the document in the Slovenian parliament. (Hina)