The prime ministers of Croatia and Slovenia are meeting in the Slovenian lakeside resort of Bohinj on Saturday to kickstart a search for a solution to a long-standing dispute over Croatian clients' foreign currency savings deposits in the now defunct Slovenian bank Ljubljanska Banka, an issue which, along with the border dispute, has been weighing on relations between the two countries since the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and her Slovenian counterpart Borut Pahor have expressed their optimism ahead of the meeting, which comes a year after their first official meeting in Trakoscan, Croatia, which resulted in the two governments agreeing to settle their border dispute by international arbitration and Slovenia lifting its blockade of Croatia's EU accession negotiations.
"If we were able to settle an issue that had been unresolved for a full 18 years, namely how to solve the border issue, then I think we can settle this one too," Kosor said in Zagreb on Friday.
She said she did not fear a possible renewed Slovenian blockade of Croatia's EU membership talks in case the Ljubljanska Banka issue was not settled. "I believe we're on track to find some good solutions and that we will remove any possibilities of a blockade."
"I don't wish to raise expectations, but it would be a success if our meeting in Bohinj were what the Trakoscan meeting was for the settlement of the border issue," Pahor said in Ljubljana on Thursday.
Pahor said he expected progress in resolving the Ljubljanska Banka issue, which he described as "the most difficult issue" in relations between Slovenia and Croatia along with the border issue.
The Slovenian government has stated on a number of occasions that the debt of Ljubljanska Banka could be settled as a multilateral succession issue among successors to the former Yugoslavia and it has suggested that another round of talks on the problem be held with the help of the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements.
In Croatia, the issue of Ljubljanska Banka's debt to its Croatian clients is seen as a civil law matter between the Slovenian bank and its Croatian clients.
According to Croatian National Bank Governor Zeljko Rohatinski, the total savings of Croatian depositors in Ljubljanska Banka in 1991 amounted to EUR 420 million, of which Croatia took over EUR 260 million as its public debt. Some of the bank's 130,000 depositors still claim directly from it EUR 160 million. All the figures represent principal without interest.
On the other hand, Ljubljanska Banka counts on claiming back EUR 157 million plus interest from Croatian companies to which it granted loans while operating in Croatia.
