Slovenia's President Borut Pahor will pay a two-day official visit to Croatia on 9-10 May, and the first official meeting between Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and his Slovenian counterpart Pahor, since the latter stepped into office, is viewed as an opportunity to give a new momentum to the relationship between the two neighbours, which used to be strained by outstanding issues stemming from the era when they were members of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).
Pahor's stay on Thursday and Friday will be the first official meeting between him and Josipovic after they informally met in March in Salzburg during an assembly of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences that awarded the president of Croatia, the forthcoming newcomer in the European Union, and the president of Slovenia, one of the existing 27 EU members, for their contribution to the promotion of the idea of Europe.
According to sources from the office of the Croatian president, upon their meeting in Zagreb, Josipovic and Pahor, who was also Slovenia's prime minister and parliament speaker, are due to release their presidential declaration in which they are expected to underscore the commitment of their respective countries to the reinforcement of bilateral relations, which are likely to be further upgraded with Croatia's admission to the EU on 1 July.
Following the tensions which cropped up owing to issues relating to the border demarcation and later owing to the unresolved issues about deposits of Croatian clients in the now defunct Ljubljanska Banka (LB) in the past years, Croatia and Slovenia have lately reached a level of dialogue and cooperation facilitating the attempts of the two governments to seek models to resolve the said issues which, in the past, were treated by Slovenia as reasons to temporarily obstruct Croatia's accession negotiations and process of integration into the EU.
Pahor's visit coincides with a new hearing set for Thursday at Zagreb's Municipal Court concerning lawsuits against LB. This hearing, one of a score of legal actions launched by Privredna Banka Zagreb (PBZ) and Zagrebacka Banka with the power of attorney given by the Croatian finance ministry, will be held on Thursday, although Ljubljana insists that the 11 March 2013 memorandum signed by premiers, Zoran Milanovic of Croatia and the then Slovenian PM, Janez Jansa, stipulates the suspension of all legal actions against LB before Croatian courts until a comprehensive solution isn't found within the succession to the former SFRY.
After the memorandum-signing ceremony in Mokrice in March, Josipovic and Pahor issued their joint statement to highlight the determination to use Croatia's EU entry on 1 July to deepen overall cooperation between the two nations in the context of their joint European future.
Pahor will also hold talks with Parliament Speaker Josip Leko on Thursday and Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic on Friday on topics including the situation in the region and their countries' support to other EU and NATO aspirants in the region.
On Friday, the two heads of state will open a Croatian-Slovenian business forum in the Croatian Chamber of Commerce.
The unresolved issues such as the LB problem, share-holding in the Krsko nuclear power plant as well as the ongoing global crisis have affected Croatian-Slovenian economic cooperation.
Trade between the two countries fell by 1.8% from EUR 1.805 billion in 2011 to EUR 1.773 billion in 2012. Last year, Croatia's exports to its western neighbour totalled EUR 827.5 million, up by 4.2%, while imports from Slovenia dropped by 6.6% to EUR 945.7 million.
