The fifth meeting of France Arhar and Zdravko Rogic, the experts appointed by the governments of Slovenia and Croatia to propose a solution to their dispute over the now defunct Slovenian bank Ljubljanska Banka, has been postponed for a week, the Slovenian news agency STA said on Friday. The two experts were scheduled to meet next Tuesday in Slovenia.
The Slovenian Foreign Ministry confirmed the news to Hina, saying that the meeting was postponed because the Slovenian expert Arhar had other engagements at the time. The new date of the meeting will be announced later.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec told Slovenian Television on Thursday evening that the only Slovenian condition for the ratification of Croatia's EU accession treaty was a compromise over the Ljubljanska Banka issue and the withdrawal of lawsuits against the bank before Croatian courts.
Erjavec said that a solution to the problem could be found by the end of February, adding that he personally would get involved despite the present political crisis in Slovenia which faces the fall of the government.
Erjavec reiterated that it was a serious problem that needed to be resolved, because otherwise Croatia might not enter the EU on July 1 as scheduled.
