Croatia - Slovenia

Memorandum of Agreement for LB issue initialled

07.03.2013 u 11:14

Bionic
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Croatian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusic and state secretary in the Slovenian prime minister's cabinet Tone Kajzer on Thursday initialled a Memorandum of Agreement between Croatia and Slovenia which resolves the issue of the Ljubljanska Banka (LB) and paves the way for Slovenia to ratify Croatia's EU accession treaty, the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs reported.

The memorandum foresees solving the outstanding issue of the now defunct Ljubljanska Banka which will enable the ratification process of Croatia's accession treaty to begin immediately. The Croatian government will discuss the initialled memorandum at its session later in the day.

The memorandum should be signed within the next few days by the prime ministers of both countries.

Slovenia is the only EU member country that has not yet launched the ratification process. Four other countries are still in the process of ratifying the treaty. Croatia is expected to become a member of the bloc on July 1.