Former Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic said on Thursday that the meeting between the foreign ministers of Croatia and Slovenia in Brussels on Wednesday evening was "a step in search of a compromise solution" to the Ljubljanska Banka issue, noting that now it was most important to ensure that the Slovenian parliament ratified Croatia's EU accession treaty and that this issue was separated from the bank dispute.
"It is certainly good that this step has been taken even though we still do not know the content of that compromise solution," Jandrokovic told the press in the Parliament building.
"The Slovenian parliament now needs to ratify the treaty, and a model should be found to resolve the Ljubljanska Banka issue," he said, adding that the two issues should be separated because "a good and just solution to this problem which has existed for 20 years" could hardly be found within a short period of time.
Expressing regret that the Ljubljanska Banka issue had not been tackled in a more active way before, Jandrokovic said that "Croatia has now been presented with a fait accompli while Slovenia is in a situation to blackmail us." He, however, believes that Croatian diplomats will find a good solution and will prevent damage being done to Croatia.
Foreign ministers Vesna Pusic of Croatia and Karl Erjavec of Slovenia said after their two-hour meeting in Brussels on Wednesday evening that it was possible to find a solution to the Ljubljanska Banka issue in the course of February, which would pave the way for the ratification of the Croatian EU accession treaty by the Slovenian parliament.
The two ministers said they would be meeting again in Slovenia on February 6 when they would be joined by two financial experts appointed by the governments. No other details were revealed.
