Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic said in Zagreb on Friday that Croatia had not reopened the Ljubljanska banka issue, but that the issue was reopened by Slovenia, assessing as "inconceivable" the possibility that this unresolved issue between the two neighbours may bring into question the ratification of Croatia's Accession Treaty with the EU in the Slovenian Parliament.
"Croatia has not reopened the topic, the topic was reopened by Slovenia two and a half months ago when Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec visited Zagreb," Pusic told a news conference commenting on Slovenian President Danilo Tuerk's statement that he was unpleasantly surprised with the Croatian government's reopening the issue of Ljubljanska Banka.
In its present situation, in the process of the ratification of its EU Accession Treaty and ahead of its EU entry, Croatia should be very careful about its credibility, Tuerk told Slovenia's news agency STA.
Pusic reiterated it was not Zagreb but Ljubljana that reopened this issue which in her opinion had nothing to do with the ratification of Croatia's Treaty of Accession with the EU in the Slovenian Parliament.
The Prime Ministers of Croatia and Slovenia, Zoran Milanovic and Janez Jansa, met in in Maribor earlier this week and said that relations between Slovenia and Croatia were good and they had not been compromised even by the recently reopened issue of Ljubljanska Banka. The two premiers said nothing would change in that respect because both governments honoured the obligations taken over by their predecessors.
