The foreign ministers of Croatia and Slovenia did not get from the European Commission in Brussels on Tuesday a list of names of potential arbiters from which the two countries are expected to choose the president and two members of a five-member arbitral tribunal that will solve their border dispute.
Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic met with Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar and European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele for an informal meeting that focused on the list of potential arbiters.
"At today's meeting we didn't get or see the list of arbiters from which the judges of the international arbitral tribunal should be chosen nor were any names that could be on the list mentioned. I hope that with this meeting we have come closer to the first step in the implementation of the (border) arbitration agreement," said Pusic.
Under the agreement, the Slovenian-Croatian border should be decided by five arbiters, of whom each country appoints one, while the remaining three will be appointed by agreement from a list prepared by the European Commission. If the two countries cannot agree on said three judges, they will be appointed by the president of the International Court of Justice.
Pusic said today's four-hour meeting focused on how to agree on those three judges, adding that it was both Croatia's and Slovenia's intention to agree on their appointment.
