The Croatian government on Thursday endorsed a Memorandum of Agreement with Slovenia based on which the issue of Ljubljanska Banka (LB) would be resolved which would then pave the way for Slovenia to ratify Croatia's EU accession treaty by the end of March, and authorised Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic to sign the memorandum in Mokrice (Slovenia) on Monday.
The memorandum was initialed this morning by Croatian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusic and state secretary in the Slovenian prime minister's cabinet Tone Kajzer. Pusic said the document referred exclusively to the transferred savings. She said that under the memorandum, the legal proceedings against Ljubljanska Banka before Croatian courts would be adjourned. The two sides will be given time to resolve this issue within the framework of succession and Slovenia, once the memorandum goes into effect, will launch the process of ratifying Croatia's Treaty of Accession with the EU.
Pusic said Croatia's EU accession treaty should be ratified in Slovenia by the end of March.
PM Milanovic said he and his Slovenian counterpart Janez Jansa would sign the initialled memorandum in Mokrice on Monday, 11 March.
He underlined the document was the result of a compromise "which was reached relatively easy once there was a political will for that."
"What has been has been. We have removed an obstacle which should have never been there in the first place," Milanovic said.
"We are pausing with the procedures and transferring negotiations to the field of succession and that's that. Both sides are satisfied and I don't understand the danger in this. Had Croatia had any influence the government would have resolved the matter in our courts over the past 20 years, but didn't", Milanovic said.
Milanovic also said the Slovenian government would endorse the initialed memorandum at its session which is currently under way and authorise Jansa to sign it.
