The European Commission considers the issue of savings deposits of clients of the now defunct Ljubljanska Banka to be a bilateral issue between Croatia and Slovenia and encourages both countries to find a mutually acceptable solution for it, EC spokesperson Catherine Ray said in Brussels on Thursday.
Ray made the statement when asked by the press to comment on the latest developments regarding that issue.
The Rijeka-based Novi List daily has reported that Slovenia has requested an explanation for a conclusion adopted by the Croatian government concerning Ljubljanska Banka, that it has not received it and that it believes the conclusion to be in violation of commitments assumed by the previous government, of which it has already informed other EU member-countries.
Novi List said the former government agreed that the issue of Ljubljanska Banka's debt to its Croatian clients be dealt with as part of negotiations on succession to the former Yugoslav federation in exchange for Slovenia's agreeing to the completion of Croatia's EU membership talks.
Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic on Wednesday dismissed claims that the former government had agreed to have the debt of Ljubljanska Banka to its Croatian clients discussed as part of talks on succession to the former Yugoslavia, underlining that there had been a proposal and a request to seek mediation from the Bank for International Settlements in Basel.
"That request was made and the BIS replied that the matter was no longer within its jurisdiction," she said.
Pusic also said that "European partners mostly consider this as a bilateral issue", announcing that the prime ministers of Croatia and Slovenia, Zoran Milanovic and Janez Jansa, would meet in the near future and that the issue of Ljubljanska Banka could be one of the topics of their talks.
