In accordance with the agreement on succession to the former Socialist Yugoslavia, Croatia is expected to take over seven properties, including embassy buildings in Vienna and Lisbon, by the end of the year, the Croatian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
After a stalemate, succession talks resumed in May, also at the insistence of Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic, when the Joint Succession Committee agreed the schedule for the takeover of said real estate, of which the majority owner is Serbia.
According to the schedule, Croatia is expected to take over by the end of the year two flats in Trieste, an embassy building in Vienna, an embassy building in Lisbon, and official residences in Madrid, Oslo and Helsinki. An embassy building in The Hague, a consulate general building in Toronto, and an official residence in Stockholm will be transferred by 31 August 2012.
It was also agreed to intensify talks as of this autumn on the takeover of the remaining real estate, and to turn over to Croatia 116 pieces of art from ex-Yugoslavia's diplomatic and consular missions.
According to the ministry, it is evident that Croatia is investing efforts to step up the succession process and the division of the former federation's diplomatic and consular missions, in line with the agreement between the successor states.
Under this agreement, Croatia first took over former Yugoslavia's embassy building in Paris. In 2006, the Joint Succession Council adopted a resolution allocating 44 buildings from the OECD region, of which 10 are to be given to Croatia. The allocation is based on quotas, Croatia's being 23.5 per cent.
