There is a good chance to come to an agreement with Croatia over the Ljubljanska Banka issue based on what was agreed to in Otocec ob Krki, Slovenia's former chief negotiator for that matter, Slovenia's former negotiator for the bank issue Karl Erjavec, said on Wednesday after a meeting of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.
I am very pleased with what I heard at the meeting. There is a good chance for an agreement to be reached based on what Croatia's Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic and I prepared in Otocec, he said after the closed meeting convened to discuss the negotiations so far concerning the Ljubljanska Banka.
Slovenia has preconditioned the ratification of Croatia's EU accession treaty by a solution to the bank issue.
Wednesday's meeting was attended by outgoing PM Janez Jansa and PM designate Alenka Bratusek as well as Tone Kajzer whom Jansa appointed as Slovenia's coordinator in the negotiations.
The meeting was convened at Jansa's request ahead of a meeting with Croatia's Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic scheduled for Sunday.
It is expected that an agreement on the Ljubljanska Banka could be singed at that meeting however, it is still uncertain if that meeting will take place considering that Jansa's government is tending to technical matters only until a new government is convened by Bratusek, Slovenian press reports.
Slovenia's STA news agency on Wednesday had reported that the agreement on the Ljubljanska Banka could be signed on behalf of the Slovenian side by the outgoing PM, if authorised to do so by the parliament.
Jansa, Bratusek and Slovenia's new negotiator Tone Kajzer would not make any statements about the possible meeting with Croatia's PM.
The chairman of the foreign affairs committee, Jozef Horvat, too did not wish to make any statements on whether the meeting was indeed to take place commenting only that the conclusions of today's meeting were confidential but that there was reason for optimism. Horvat is a member of Jansa's Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS).
Erjavec too was optimistic, who although he has resigned as foreign minister in Jansa's government is continuing in this office as the outgoing FM and whose party the Democratic Party of Pensioners (DESUS) is bargaining to enter into the new government and for him to again be the foreign minister.
After the meeting, Erjavec said he was tending to technical matters as the outgoing FM and that he had been pulled out of the negotiations over the Ljubljanskan Banka, adding however that based on what he heard at the meeting he could say that negotiations were going down the right track and that he was optimistic that they would be concluded successfully. He too did not wish to speculate whether the announced meeting between the two prime ministers would indeed take place.
