"I'm confident that a solution will be found and it should be found in time, so that Croatia's EU accession treaty can be ratified at the Slovenian parliament's session early next month," Erjavec told Slovenian Television ahead of his meeting with Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic in Slovenia on Wednesday.

"I am an optimist. We have no choice, we have to find a solution," he said, adding that he would not like it if no solution was found and he and Slovenia became responsible for Croatia's failure to join the European Union on July 1.

If a solution is not found within the succession framework, which could later serve as a model for solving the Ljubljanska Banka issue with the other countries in the region during their EU accession, the consequences for Croatia could be tough because it would not join the Union on July 1 as scheduled, said Erjavec.

In that case, Croatia could not get the accession funds already set aside and if Slovenia does not ratify the current accession treaty, it would have to be ratified again in all member countries, Erjavec said, adding that there would be a "historic reproach" between the two states which he would not like to be blamed for.

Erjavec said he and Pusic agreed over the phone today that after their meeting on Wednesday and after a meeting of the two countries' experts tasked with dealing with the bank issue, another two meetings in the same make-up would be necessary so that a solution to the bank issue was found and approved by the two governments.